For the second year Morgan Stanley Dean Witter wins our award for best investment bank, for two reasons. First, it continues to have, and build on, the broadest and most successful franchises in the highest margin areas of corporate finance: its secondary and primary equities business is as strong as any; its debt markets business, always solid, is improving; and in M&A it took part in 34% of all major transactions last year.
Morgan Stanley has built this largely internally from a strong domestic base.
Analysts like its broad mix of businesses, and of mandates within each business line. "We tend to be consistently strong across product lines," says Joe Perella, head of Morgan Stanley's worldwide investment banking division. "And the last 12 months have been the real test, especially in the tech sector, where the market first soared, and then crashed. Our strategy was to lead in this sector, and we have managed to achieve this without falling victim to the initial euphoria by underwriting anything."
In this regard, Perella sees this year's award as a vindication of what he told Euromoney when the firm won last year.