Taiwan Loan House

National Australia Bank’s focus on corporate bonds, bank capital and securitisation paid dividends in 2015 as the Australasian debt markets continued to expand beyond their traditional bank-dominated core. NAB was at the forefront of key developments during IFR’s review period, combining its focus on higher-margin business with its deep corporate relationships to deliver a range of innovative deals across the Australian fixed-income arena. All told, NAB was on 82 Australian dollar transactions, including securitisations, but excluding self-led...

UBS has been facing some reinvigorated competition in Australasian equities of late, but it came back stronger in 2015, leading the way with jumbo bank recapitalisations, arranging the largest IPO of the year and maintaining its focus on innovation. Capital-raising activity of Australia’s banks was a key theme throughout the year. After regulators asked the country’s major lenders to set aside more capital against potential loan losses, the big four banks all completed major equity offerings to raise a combined A$16.56bn (US$11.9bn). In an...

Westpac Banking grabbed market share and executed a diverse range of deals on its way to a stellar year in a highly competitive market. The bank won 20 lead roles for a broad range of transactions, including corporate deals, project financings and acquisition loans across multiple sectors. It worked on a sole basis on as many as eight of these financings, totalling over A$3.7bn (US$2.7bn), and improved its market share from 2014, vaulting to the top of the bookrunner ranking for the Australian loan market, up from third position a year...

ICBC added to its credentials as a full-service bond house in 2015 as it dominated the onshore market, facilitated landmark international renminbi deals and helped Chinese issuers access foreign currency funding. The bank reaffirmed its number one position in the domestic renminbi market, arranging Rmb156bn (US$24.5bn) of local offerings during the review period, according to Thomson Reuters data. As monetary easing lured more Chinese issuers into the local capital markets, ICBC’s extensive network played to its advantage, helping many offshore...

Standard Chartered continued to deliver innovative financings in 2015 with an eye on wider distribution, sticking to Chinese clients during a volatile year when others were pulling back. A slowing economy made China a challenging market for global lenders, but StanChart stood firm, offering clients a mix of renminbi and foreign currency loans and often leading transactions on a sole basis. The bank underlined its sound read on market pricing with successful syndications for first-time borrowers and broadened its distribution effort as Taiwanese...

Australian banking major ANZ’s debut Tier 2 bond offering in January established the renminbi as an alternative funding currency for global bank capital and effectively reopened the market in a challenging period for Dim Sum offerings. The Rmb2.5bn (US$390m) deal marked the first time a foreign bank raised Basel III capital in the offshore renminbi market. The bigger-than-expected size and competitive pricing spawned a flurry of copycat issues. Since then, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, BPCE and Societe Generale have all issued T2 Dim...

HSBC maintained its leading position in Hong Kong with jumbo loans, repeat mandates and event-driven financings, combined with a greater focus on distribution. The city’s deal of the year was the reorganisation of Hong Kong blue-chips Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, and HSBC was firmly in the driving seat as sole financial adviser. HSBC provided HK$45bn (US$5.8bn) of a HK$55bn bridge loan in January to fund the group’s reshuffle into property and non-property assets, and churned its exposure quickly, coordinating a HK$40bn takeout...

The successful HK$7.22bn (US$932m) listing of China International Capital Corp, the country’s first investment bank, showed the Hong Kong market can deliver a long-term shareholder base for even the most challenging of deals. CICC had already endured a long and arduous route to market, with questions circling over its growth plans amid a slowdown in dealmaking from China’s public sector – traditionally its major client base. It needed to engage investors who had already been burned on Chinese financial stocks during the summer stock rout. While...

IDFC Bank added depth and breadth to the Indian bond markets in 2015, leading the key trend of bringing infrastructure companies to the rupee capital markets to repay high-cost bank debt. The first bonds under an Asian Development Bank-backed credit enhancement scheme, the first road annuity project bonds and the first corporate green bonds in the domestic market were significant landmarks. IDFC was far from the biggest arranger in a market where the line between underwriters and investors is often blurred, but it stood out to deliver solutions...

SBI Capital Markets redefined its supremacy over the Indian loan market in 2015, devising unique solutions for its clients and working closely with regulators to resolve some deep-rooted problems in project financing. India’s largest domestic investment bank dominated the league table, arranging 44.6% of all the country’s syndicated loans during IFR’s review period. Also, it played a crucial role in helping Indian borrowers access financing at a time when many were reeling under slower economic growth. SBI Caps successfully steered the...

Goldman Sachs stood out in the crowded market for Indian equity underwriting in 2015, securing lucrative sole mandates and leading every major government divestment. In the busiest year for equity offerings in a decade, Goldman completed both the biggest block trade and the largest government sell-down, showing that underwriters need not always work for losses. Goldman’s most impressive deal during IFR’s review period was a Rs200bn (US$3.2bn) block in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries from Daiichi Sankyo in April. At US$3.2bn, the deal exceeded the...

Pulling off a sizable equity offering in a country where macroeconomic indicators and the currency are both pointing down is no mean feat. Not only that, HM Sampoerna’s Rp20trn (US$1.4bn) share placement also came with premium pricing, proving that Indonesian companies can actually benefit from meeting the country’s free-float rules. Sampoerna, a subsidiary of Philip Morris, may be one of the country’s most attractive equity plays, but selling the deal was far from being a no-brainer. Global investors turned cool to South-East Asia in 2015, and...