37 BANK
OF THE YEAR AWARD
SPONSORED BY JAMES COWPER LLP WINNER HSBC
Above: Jon Stradling of HSBC
Right: The HSBC team with its award presented by Nick Rogers (far right) of sponsor James Cowper
None of the four banks shortlisted for this much sought-after award needed any introduction – HSBC, Lloyds Bank, RBS, and Santander – but more than one gained the judges acclaim.
For the third time in the evening, the judges decided to recognise the quality of the entries of the four shortlisted banks by announcing an Outstanding Performer in 2013.
Having lent £265 million in new facilities in the Thames Valley in the past year, and extended its footprint with the opening of a new office in Oxford, while providing funding packages on significant deals during 2013, this honour went to Santander.
Santander’s lending over the past four years has actually grown by an average of 20% per annum in a declining market. Key deals in the Thames Valley were $60m of debt finance for Microfocus; a significant facility for Westbury Street; £9m for JCA Coatings; involvement in the £32m syndication for Genus plc. The Bank’s £200m mezzanine debt project also created 228 new jobs across the region.
And then there were three, for that prized title of Bank of the Year.
HSBC in the Thames Valley had enjoyed a strong year, and nominations from
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2014
customers praised the Bank for “outstanding service and speed of execution”. Deals included Dialog Semiconducter’s acquisition of iWatt; Romans; financing for Oxford Instruments acquisition of Andor plc; refinancing of Expro International, Halma plc and WSH.
Lloyds provided funding and rebanking for Timbmet, plus Clean Linen, Surface Technology, Geos Group and AIM-listed Accesso Technology Group (formerly Lo- Q) – all ably demonstrating that it was an “extremely visible” bank in the Thames Valley and “clearly open for business”.
The “always busy” Thames Valley RBS team had supported the SMBO of Choice Care Group by Caledonia Investments, while also supporting Bowmark Capital in the MBO of Romans Group, both local Thames Valley transactions.
The Deal Award judges felt there was only one choice for the winner – based on the strength of the nominations and the portfolio of deals supported by this bank in the qualifying period.
Nick Rogers, partner of category sponsors James Cowper, presented the Bank of the Year award trophy to HSBC.
Nominations for HSBC to win the Bank of the Year title included one which said: “Through
www.businessmag.co.uk
the recent troubled economic times, HSBC’s support of our business and its growth has been sustained in a way that made it feel like ‘business as usual’, when most businessmen I came into contact with were complaining that banks were behaving very differently.”
Jon Stradling, head of HSBC Corporate Banking in the Thames Valley, said: “We are delighted by this award tonight. To receive such recognition from fellow professionals and clients in what is a very dynamic community is a huge accolade.
“We have had a very good year, completing a good number of transactions with plcs and on the private equity front. I’m not sure we have done anything fundamentally different this past year, but maybe we’ve done it better.
“The past six months has seen a material uptick in transactional activity, we’ve had a very good start this year, and feel confident and buoyant about deals we are currently working on. Looking forward, when we are all sat at this awards event next year I am sure we’ll have an awful lot of significant activity to talk about.”
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