Over 300 of Asia’s capital markets community gathered in the ballroom of Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt hotel on February 8 for IFR Asia’s 15th annual awards dinner. The awards themselves celebrated the most impressive deals and institutions of 2011 - a timely reminder of the kind of achievements that are possible even in difficult markets.
This year’s guest speaker was the Rt Hon Alistair Darling, MP, the former UK chancellor, who took the opportunity to share some of his views on Europe’s financial future. His comparisons to the crisis of 2008, in particular, had many in the audience on the edge of their seats - especially at a time when fears of a messy default in Greece were again coming to the fore.
Farhan Faruqui, Citigroup’s head of global banking for Asia Pacific, accepted the night’s top prize on behalf of IFR Asia’s Bank of the Year, while Gerald Ma took home the Issuer of the Year award for Cheung Kong (Holdings).
The other big winner from this year’s event was IFR’s charity, Save the Children, which raised over HK$100,000 at last count from the night’s prize draw.
IFR Asia would like to thank all who made the event a great success.
