 |
Best Bank: Bank Mandiri
Best Investment Bank: Credit Suisse
|
Bank Mandiri is one of several institutions across Asia to have benefited this year from concentrating on the basics of banking. Indonesia’s largest bank also deserves to be named its best for a steady approach that saw its net NPL ratio shrink from 1.51% to 1.09% in financial year 2009, while net interest margin rose 8.3% to 5.45% so that earnings after tax were up an impressive 22.3% at Rp5,313 billion ($523 million). The state-owned bank has focused on cleaning up its balance sheet and building a strong deposit base over the past few years, so that savings now contribute over 30% of the firm’s balance sheet as opposed to just over 10% in 2001. Last year’s citation for this award alluded to the politicking that prevented Mandiri’s chief executive, Agus Martowardojo, from taking over the central bank; rumours persist that he is still after a cabinet role but for now he is doing a fine job heading Bank Mandiri.
 |
|
Agus Martowardojo: Mandiri’s chief executive is doing a fine job
|
Credit Suisse remains the top foreign investment banking franchise in Indonesia: the firm’s chief executive for the country, Helman Sitohang, was appointed co-head of investment banking for Asia-Pacific in March, and the Swiss firm clearly takes Indonesia very seriously. The bank topped Dealogic’s league tables for all three product areas, with M&A being the most active market. In addition to the $5.1 billion deal for Bakrie & Brothers in April 2008, Credit Suisse advised on six other transactions for a total value of $12.5 billion. These included the sale by a Temasek subsidiary of its stake in telecoms provider Indosat to Credit Suisse client Qatar Telecom in a deal with a total value of $3.5 billion, making it by Credit Suisse’s reckoning the largest-ever Middle East-Asia transaction. The bank was also involved in another Temasek deal, this time advising the Singapore fund on its sale of a stake in Bank International Indonesia worth $2.4 billion to Maybank. The capital markets were less busy, with the $4 billion rights issue for the Bakries just sneaking in to the
Euromoney awards period and little other equity-related activity, but Credit Suisse was at the forefront of whatever business there was and a natural choice as one of the bookrunners for the sovereign borrower’s $2.2 billion multi-tranche deal in June.
