When it comes to Asia’s equity capital markets, Morgan Stanley is a dominating force. Just take the numbers. In 2024, it was top of the Asia Pacific ex-China A-share ECM league table by bookrunner volume and revenues, and also topped the Apac ex-Japan league table on both metrics, Dealogic shows.
That leadership meant the US bank was involved in many of the region’s key ECM deals last year.
This included the roughly $3.3 billion IPO of Hyundai Motor India in October 2024, which was the largest ever IPO in the country at the time, and the largest Apac IPO since January 2022. Morgan Stanley was also a lead bookrunner on Ping An Insurance Group’s $3.5 billion jumbo convertible bond – the largest Reg S-only convertible bond (CB) globally, and the first offshore CB from China.
Its deal roster spanned the $455 million sale of American depositary receipts by WeRide; the $783 million Hong Kong IPO of Horizon Robotics; the $507 million American depositary receipts (ADR) IPO of Zeekr and the chunky $1.6 billion US listing of Amer Sports.
On the follow-on front, Morgan Stanley was sole bookrunner on some major trades, such as the $201 million secondary sell-down in Hong Kong-listed Pop Mart, a sell-down of $477 million in Kuaishou and a jumbo $3.6 billion China ADR sell-down in JD.com. It also led CB trades for the likes of Alibaba Group ($5 billion) and Lenovo ($2 billion).
“Our core strategy has remained unchanged, which is being a full-service investment bank with a thriving business across each product,” says Saurabh Dinakar, head of Asia Pacific global capital markets at Morgan Stanley.
Morgan Stanley [reflected] its ability to take large equity risks for the right clients
“What we did in 2024 was take advantage of market conditions that presented themselves. There was an unprecedented level of activity across the spectrum of products, and we created opportunities for our clients, notwithstanding the volatile market backdrop.”
An example of that opportunity was the sell-down in JD.com by shareholder Walmart. The US supermarket chain wanted to reduce its investment in JD.com to refocus on its core business in China, bringing on Morgan Stanley to execute that block. Morgan Stanley underwrote the deal on a sole basis, reflecting its ability to take large equity risks for the right clients.
The one market where Morgan Stanley was somewhat missing in action was in Taiwan. The market saw a burst of ECM activity last year, particularly on equity-linked and global depositary receipt offerings. Morgan Stanley worked on just one deal, a roughly $45 million follow-on offering in LuxNet Corp, shows Dealogic.
However, the firm has plugged that gap, hiring Elsa Chiu as CEO of Taiwan from UBS early this year. This is already paying off, with Morgan Stanley running a $350 million CB for Taiwanese cement maker TCC Group in March 2025 as sole global coordinator.
