Awards for Achievement 2010: Day 3

The following banks and their clients will be honoured at an awards dinner at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong on February 17. If you would like to book a table at the event, please contact Stephanie Cheung on +852 2122 5225 or [email protected].


BEST FIG HOUSE
Goldman Sachs

Two banks stood out in the financial sector this year and the fight between them for this award was as even as it was fierce. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both had coordinating roles on the three largest IPOs -- Agricultural Bank of China, AIA and Samsung Life Insurance -- both completed notable block trades and were active across geographies. Morgan Stanley had the edge on number of deals, while Goldman led on volume. 

But after speaking to competing bankers and clients and taking a closer look at the top deals, we have become convinced that Goldman had more of a driving role on the IPOs for both ABC and AIA. On AIA it got elevated to joint global coordinator after advising AIG on the sale of AIA to Prudential (which subsequently collapsed), having acted as a joint bookrunner on the first attempt at an IPO in the first quarter. Once mandated it took the lead in facilitating the communication between the senior management, the joint global coordinators and other syndicate members and the cornerstone investors, led the drafting and positioning of AIA’s unique equity story and was responsible for the preparation of the analyst and roadshow presentations. It also acted as the stabilisation agent.

The bank had similar responsibilities together with CICC on ABC’s IPO where their work was recognised through a slightly greater share of the economics than the other banks involved. Again it acted as the stabilisation agent.

Goldman also worked on the rights offerings for Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank, which paved the way for the state-owned banks later in the year, and in India it helped Standard Chartered become the first foreign company to list Indian depositary receipts.

Among its key M&A mandates, it advised Ping An Insurance Group on the $4.3 billion acquisition of a near 30% stake in Shenzhen Development Bank, which made Ping An the first Chinese insurer to become the largest shareholder of a Chinese nationwide bank. And it worked on ICBC’s $1.4 billion privatisation of its Hong Kong subsidiary, ICBC (Asia).

Also helping to tip the scale in favour of Goldman was the fact that it didn’t work on any FIG sector deals that failed or had to be withdrawn this year – a further testament of its strong execution capabilities.


BEST TMT HOUSE
Goldman Sachs
 
This was a tough call this year. Many banks, including Citi, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered, closed some good deals. The confusion was compounded by the finger-pointing competitors did at the banks on the China Mobile trade, of which Goldman was one. But we thought one of the more honest comments we heard this season was from a TMT banker who cited that trade as the one he missed -- despite the outcome. His succinct summing up: “Who can honestly say they didn’t want to advise Vodafone on a deal of this magnitude?” As our house awards recognise the relationships banks have, we agree that whatever the P&L outcome, Goldman Sachs has cemented its relationship with Vodafone.
 
Goldman closed 33 deals for its clients across nine countries. Every other contender named Goldman as competition in some product or vertical. It raised $4.7 billion in the equity markets across 17 deals, and given that wallets were driven by the equity product, this focus seems fair. Goldman was one of three bookrunners on China Unicom, the largest CB ever in Asia ex-Japan, and the winner of our best equity-linked award this year.
 
Repeat business from various clients, including two Hutchison mandates, is further testimony to the strength of its relationships. Goldman’s strategy of focusing on established relationships, and on mandates with fewer bookrunners, is a compelling one, especially at a time when a proliferation of banks on deals is whittling away at the fee pool.
 
Goldman’s business was reasonably balanced across technology, media and telecoms. In terms of the country balance, we’d note that China was heavy and India light – but given which deals were the large fee payers, we find it difficult to fault that strategy this year.


BEST GIG HOUSE
Morgan Stanley

This was another tough category this year, which isn’t surprising given that both the equity and debt markets are boasting record volumes and in light of the broad spread of sectors included under the general industries group (GIG) umbrella. Consequently most banks have done a lot of deals that fit into this sector. We were particularly intrigued by Citi’s strong finish to the year and the sizeable revenues that it claims to have earned from its GIG franchise by prioritising deals that pay “real” fees.

However, the large volume of transactions executed by Morgan Stanley and the fact that it was involved in many of the deals that we consider key this year weighed over in the end. These include the IPOs for Petronas Chemicals and Tiger Airways, Thai Union’s acquisition of MW brands, and Guangzhou Auto’s privatisation of Denway, which have all won FinanceAsia deal awards this year. Morgan Stanley also advised PetroChina on its and Shell’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Arrow Energy; China National Petroleum Corp subsidiary BGP on its landmark investment in US-listed ION Geophysical Corp; and China Investment Corporation on its $2.2 billion investment in AES, CIC’s first investment into a listed US company outside the financial services sector.

With one month left of 2010, the bank topped the GIG league tables for both equity and completed M&A, although the competition was snapping at its heels.