The North American capital markets witnessed unprecedented levels of activity over the awards period and Morgan Stanley has demonstrated an impressive ability to come up with differentiated advice and solid execution across all its financing businesses.
The first three quarters saw clients move beyond the initial need to fortify the balance sheet post-Covid. The US bank therefore spent most of last year helping established companies to think about growing, whether it was raising $3.4 billion for real estate investment trust VICI Properties, or $2.5 billion for Culligan International, or $18.3 billion across four separate deals for Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Markets were in overdrive and open to whatever plans clients had. The best advice was stay on offence and to think about plans for the next five years as opposed to just the next trade.
But everything changed in the last quarter as volatility and uncertainty increased following the outbreak of war in Europe and concerns over inflation and monetary tightening.