Awards for Excellence 2018
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Morgan Stanley may have missed out on the investment bank title for only the second time in five years, but it remains formidable and was pre-eminent in equity capital markets during our review period. It is a deserving winner of Euromoney’s best bank for financing.
Top of the international ECM tables in Asia for the third consecutive year, the bank appeared to be everywhere, with its excellence in Japan through its joint venture with MUFG particularly notable. The bank was on five of the 10 biggest ECM transactions during the review period, including the $9.8 billion block trade in Tencent and the $2.7 billion selldown in Woodside Petroleum by Shell. Below the jumbos it was on arguably more important deals: the $1.1 billion IPO of China Literature, another IPO of the same size for Qudian on the New York Stock Exchange and the largest Singapore primary listing since 2011 for NetLink NBN Trust.
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Julien Begasse de Dhaem |
But wasn’t 2017/18 a debt year, the Morgan Stanley weak point? Well, something interesting happened at the bank during our review period. Its DCM team gained greater local control over its allocation of risk, allowing it to lead with the balance sheet in a way we don’t normally associate with the firm. When Morgan Stanley turns up on a debut bond for a Cambodian casino operator alongside Credit Suisse, you know something has changed.
Deals for the heavy hitters stood out – additional tier-1 issuance for Postal Savings Bank of China, the $6.7 billion multi-tranche senior offer for Alibaba and a range of interesting deals for Softbank, ChemChina and Tencent – while elsewhere the bank, under Julien Begasse de Dhaem, head of global capital markets for Asia Pacific, continued its excellent work in formosa financing in Taiwan, work reflected in the investment banking award for Taiwan.
