Pan Gongsheng, executive president of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), was named Capital Markets Person of the Year for 2010 at our annual Achievement Awards gala dinner on February 17. He received the award for his hands-on approach in making sure that ABC’s record-breaking initial public offering was successfully completed within the extremely tight timetable set by the bank.
About 320 bankers, lawyers and corporate executives turned up for the black-tie event, which for the first time, was held at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong.
In total, we handed out 51 awards at the dinner. Citi collected the awards for Best Commercial Bank and Best Bank, while the Best Investment Bank award went to Goldman Sachs for the first time since 2006. Goldman also picked up the plaque for Best Equity House, while Best M&A House went to Morgan Stanley and Best International Bond House to Deutsche Bank.
AIA Group’s $20.5 billion IPO was awarded as the Deal of the Year, as well as the Best IPO in 2010.
Making the most of having a room full of bankers in the middle of bonus season, we held a raffle and tombstone sale on behalf of the Grameen Foundation, which FinanceAsia has sponsored for several years through our awards dinners. The work done by the Grameen Foundation -- which provides the world’s poorest people with microfinance services and access to practical technology to enable them to pull themselves out of poverty -- was outlined by William McGovern, a founding friend of the charity organisation and a partner with litigation and arbitration firm Kobre & Kim.
Goldman Sachs won the all-important quiz for the second straight year and collected a crate of champagne for its efforts.
Capital Markets Person of the Year
Dr Pan joined ABC in April 2008 with the specific task of leading the bank’s IPO effort – a job he was exceptionally well suited for, having also overseen the $21.9 billion listing of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 2006. And he did deliver.
His early discussions with potential cornerstone investors gave the bookrunners a head start and ensured the deal size could be pushed to a total of $22.1 billion, despite a challenging market environment and lots of preconceived opinions about ABC being the weakest of China’s Big Four banks. The final deal size put ABC just ahead of ICBC, to claim the title as the largest IPO in the world.
Drawing on his experiences from ICBC, Dr Pan gave the investment bankers a detailed plan right from the start, outlining each project within the IPO process, including deadlines for when they had to be completed, and then making sure they didn’t stray from the task. While this may have caused some grief and lack of sleep among the bankers, it kept the project on track and raised the bar for how to make the most of a narrow market window and how to get an IPO done on a tight schedule.
This work makes him a worthy winner of our Capital Markets Person of the Year award for 2010.
Dr Pan was unable to attend the awards dinner in person, but gave a short acceptance speech by video link.
