AWARDS
Asia’sstand-outadvisers
Adaptabilityanddeterminationwerethekeyattributesneededtoexcelinahighlyvolatile12months
forAsia’scapitalmarkets.ASIAMONEYrevealswhichinstitutionsstoodbytheirclientsthroughthick
andthin.
BESTEQUITYARRANGER number of record-sized deals were conducted, both in the G3 and
UBS local currency bond markets. And HSBC best encapsulated both
sides of the story.
The UK bank took part in important issues such as including the
The statistics don’t lie. UBS has been streets ahead of its competition Republic of the Philippines’ US$1.5 billion 10-year bond issue in
for executing equity issues during 2009. early January, Export-Import Bank of Korea’s US$2 billion five-year
“It’s hard to look past UBS when it comes to equity,” says one head bond shortly afterwards, and then deals such as Hutchison
of equity capital markets at a rival. “They are doing a huge amount of Whampoa’s US$3 billion dual tranche deal and its subsequent€1.75
business despite all the problems their bank has had. Henry Cai billion (US$2.55 billion) seven-year deal.
[UBS’s chairman of China investment banking] is a very aggressive Additionally it was a bookrunner on all three Hutchison
banker.” Whampoa bonds, and it helped to distribute a US$650 million
UBS was active from the very beginning of the year. It began with sukuk, or Islamic bond issue, for the Republic of Indonesia.
its own share sale in Bank of China on December 31, and then con- HSBC can boast that it was represented on five of the first eight
ducted Bank of America’s US$2.8 billion divestment of shares in major US dollar bonds of 2009. The bank is evidently well-favoured
China Construction Bank just eight days later – a trade in which Bank for its ability to support and distribute bonds in troubled times.
of America-Merrill Lynch itself was rumoured to have only secured a On the domestic currency front, rivals gripe that the UK-head-
seat on at the last possible moment. quartered bank benefits heavily from its stranglehold on the Hong
Singapore’s DBS then brought UBS in as part of a bookrunner Kong bond market. But HSBC was a top three international bank for
group to sell S$4.12 billion (US$2.7 billion) in a major rights offering local currency bond underwriting in most of Asia’s main markets. It
in late January. is far from being a purely Hong Kong dollar house.
Other stand-outs include Shinhan Financial Group’s W1.3 trillion The bank’s role driving San Miguel Brewery’s P38.8 billion
(US$928 million) follow-on offering and a Rs27.89 billion (US$570 (US$801 million) domestic currency bond early in 2009 offers a tes-
million) qualified institutional placement for Unitech in India in June tament to its ability to offer alternative funding options that few of
– the country’s largest deal of the year at the time. Plus there was our its international rivals can emulate.
IPO of the year, Sinopharm’s HK$10 billion H-share IPO later that It was also a joint-bookrunner on India Infrastructure Finance’s
month. Rs73.7 billion five-year bonds, the largest ever rupee-denominated
Additionally, UBS was appointed as a bookrunner for the Hong transaction.
Kong IPOs of the Macau operations of both Wynn and Las Vegas Plus, HSBC is leading the rising trend of cross-border Asian cur-
Sands, in September and November respectively. rency bonds. While this sector remains small, with issuance
Given that the Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, the two compa- totalling just US$4 billion, these issues are likely to increase.
ny CEOs, are understood to be far from friends, UBS’ involvement in The bank has weaknesses. It missed out on many Korean bonds
both was a testament to its ECM capabilities. during the year, while it only participated in one high-yield issue – a
Critics of UBS moan that its business flow is heavily China-focused US$300 million seven-year bond for Agile Property in November.
and that it barely registered in convertible bonds, conducting just one And while the US$1 billion five-year covered bond it executed for
US$361 million issue for SOHO China. Complaints also surfaced that Kookmin Bank was Asia’s first such instrument, it was panned for
many of its later deals traded weakly in the secondary market. having been scrappily structured.
Each of these points is true. But 49% of equity activity during our Yet for all its flaws, no other house has married international
period of coverage originated from China, so strength in that country and domestic currency business as HSBC has. For the time being at
was hardly a negative. Convertible bonds in contrast constituted a least, the bank combines G3 and local currency issuance better than
negligible 7.8% of overall equity volumes. anybody else.
Plus not a bank on the street can claim a perfect record for equity
deal aftermarket performance given the marked volatility of markets
during 2009. BESTLOANSARRANGER
UBS has not had the easiest of times itself, and many bankers Standard Chartered
were disgruntled about their meagre compensation at the beginning
of the year. Given that background, for it to remain the clear leader in
the region’s primary equity market deserves recognition. Over the past 12 months the region’s most prolific lenders have
been Chinese and Indian banks. Lending in the former in particular
was hectic as Beijing strong-armed its banks into throwing open
BESTDEBTARRANGER their lending books to support its fiscal stimulus plans.
HSBC But one-country lending does not a regional franchise make.
Instead, we believe Standard Chartered offered the most compre-
hensive regional lending operation.
As Asia’s bond markets have evolved, so has their complexity and The UK bank and arch-rival to HSBC garnered criticism in 2008
volumes of business. This was amply reflected during 2009 when a for underwriting deals without much care to making money, and
www.asiamoney.com 41
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