Awards for Excellence 2020
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Year after year, HSBC quietly gets on with the key business of delivering crucial funding to clients whether they are looking to refinance debt, acquire an asset or rival, or just bulk up their balance sheet in the face of a once-in-a-century global pandemic.
During our review period, HSBC, under the leadership of its global co-head of advisory and investment banking coverage Peter Enns, blew its competitors out of the water. It led in Asia ex-Japan G3 bonds in 2019 – the 10th year in a row it topped the rankings – and through the first quarter of 2020.
It also led in green, social and sustainable G3 bonds in Asia, and G3 hybrid capital offerings in Asia ex-Japan, in the 12 months to the end of March 2020, according to Dealogic.
Never were its talents more important than in the early months of 2020, when the coronavirus crisis hit and corporates and countries scrambled to tap capital markets. It was joint leader manager on Bank of China’s $516 million Covid bond, printed in February, and on Shinhan Bank’s $50 million coronavirus-linked private placement.
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Peter Enns |
As markets reopened after the initial coronavirus wave dissipated in parts of Asia, HSBC was a bulwark. It helped the New Development Bank print a Rmb5 billion ($706 million) panda bond to support three Covid-hit Chinese provinces and ensured the Republic of Indonesia raised $4.3 billion, courtesy of a triple-tranche bond.
It was there when its big clients needed it to open its pocketbook a little further.
When CK Hutchison launched a takeout deal into syndication, to replace a €10.4 billion bridge loan for the acquisition of Italy’s Wind Tre, HSBC pre-funded the 18-month deal. And when China Mengniu Dairy bought Australia’s Bellamy Organic in October, the bank provided a $1 billion loan.
As ever, the bank was willing to stray from the main path in search of the right kind of deal activity. Take the $1.3 billion package it arranged for Bangladesh Chemical Industries to finance a new natural gas fertilizer plant – the largest export credit agency facility ever completed in the south Asian state.
Or the $678.5 million project bond it arranged for Vietnam’s Mong Duong Power in July 2019. HSBC was sole financial adviser on the first project bond ever completed in the country.
HSBC was also present on a host of deals that broke regional records.
It was a bookrunner on Alibaba’s blowout $11.2 billion Hong Kong secondary listing in November, launched at the height of the city’s protests; and on the flotation of brewer AB InBev’s Budweiser’s Asian business. Another standout deal was Sino Biopharmaceutical’s €750 million convertible bond, with HSBC joint lead manager on the largest convertible ever issued by an Asian healthcare firm.
