Morgan Stanley is a powerhouse in financing. In Asia Pacific ex-China, the US bank helped to complete 42 equity capital markets deals – more than any other bank over the 12 months to the end of March 2023 – worth a total of $5.4 billion, according to Dealogic. And in debt capital markets, it completed 419 deals worth $46.2 billion.
This year Morgan Stanley beat the competition everywhere. Its geographic presence and its heft in the markets that matter put it in a position to demonstrate its ability to offer clients great advice, whether the markets were up or down.
The past year presented a unique set of difficulties for corporates and their financial advisers; a testing period in which ECM opportunities were at a premium. Yet where the deals were, so was Morgan Stanley. It managed the $672 million initial public offering of Delhivery, a SoftBank-backed and Indian logistics firm.
Two other ECM deals caught the eye. First was the $1.7 billion IPO of Tianqi Lithium, a supplier of components for rechargeable batteries. The deal priced in July 2022, a particularly volatile time for global markets. At the time it was the biggest Hong Kong stock sale in more than two years.
The second deal was the $190 million initial stock sale of Hesai Group, a Shanghai-based developer of sensor technologies used in autonomous vehicles. Hesai’s IPO was one of a just a handful of US tech IPOs by Chinese firms since the listing of Didi Chuxing in 2021.
Morgan Stanley’s central role on WuXi Biologics’ $509 million sell-down was also notable: less for its size, than for the fact that Morgan Stanley has maintained sole-book status on the Chinese drug-maker and developer’s last 15 capital markets deals.
“After a record year in 2021, 2022 and 2023 have provided much more challenging backdrops,” says Morgan Stanley’s Asia Pacific head of global capital markets, Julien Begasse de Dhaem. “In order to perform, it was critical to be on the large transactions that mattered and to have a diversified and versatile capital markets business.
“With volatile markets, our ability to deploy capital efficiently and in size while managing risk was critical.”
With volatile markets, our ability to deploy capital efficiently and in size while managing risk was critical
Julien Begasse de Dhaem
The bank’s leadership in the debt markets was easier to see, given the strength of the fixed income market over the past year. Morgan Stanley’s deal book included deals for clients in greater China (Lenovo, Syngenta, Bank of East Asia and Ant Group), southeast Asia (Bangkok Bank), northeast Asia (KDB) and Australia (NAB and Fortescue Mining).
Sustainability is now central to its franchise and again the bank came through during the awards period. It helped Hong Kong’s New World Development raise $700 million in green perpetual and social bonds in July 2022, and Export-Import Bank of Korea to complete a $3.5 billion sale of blue bonds, with the funds to be allocated to finance marine projects.
Another notable environmental, social and governance-themed transaction saw longstanding client Lenovo raise $1.25 billion from its inaugural green bond, with the funds to be allocated to worthy projects and to the wider aim of achieving carbon net-zero by 2050.
