JP Morgan wins IFR Asia’s Bank of the Year

IFR Asia Awards 2010
5 min read

IFR Asia has named JP Morgan the winner of its 2010 Bank of the Year award for the second year running. The award recognises the firm’s ability to adapt to the swings in the global markets over the year, where it held off increasingly stiff competition to build on its market-leading financing platform.

JP Morgan responded to growing international demand for emerging markets investments with clever deals that served its clients both in Asia and elsewhere in the world. It helped numerous regional clients access the global debt and equity markets, and was instrumental in allowing fixed-income investors to build exposure to Asian currencies. It stood out for the strength of its ideas and execution across the capital structure.

“In these markets, you have to be nimble and we have managed to do very well in the themes that dominated the key markets this year,” said Gaby Abdelnour, JP Morgan’s Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific chairman and CEO. “We have added new clients, extended new credit and posted record revenues, beating last year across the board.”

The bank was a bookrunner on three out of five of the largest IPOs in Asia, and featured as a bookrunner on three of the region’s five largest equity-linked offerings, including the world’s largest IPO for Agricultural Bank of China and Hong Kong’s biggest listing for AIA. Its sole mandate on the US$1bn issue of perpetual capital securities for Hong Kong blue-chip Cheung Kong Infrastructure was the highlight of the year in fixed income.

Deutsche Bank has won IFR Asia’s Bond House of the Year award. Deutsche was at the forefront of the development of Asia’s international bond markets as Asian issuers recorded record volumes again in 2010. The firm led more deals for high-yield issuers than any other house. It also continued to lead the pack in winning repeat mandates from Asia’s most sophisticated frequent issuers, and relied on the strength of its execution and distribution rather than its balance sheet to hold on to market share, despite some increasingly strong competition.

Goldman Sachs is IFR Asia’s Equity House of the Year. Goldman’s unparalleled presence on the market-defining transactions of the year put the bank head and shoulders above the competition, and its characteristically strong execution skills were in evidence on the US$22.1bn Hong Kong and Shanghai IPOs of Agricultural Bank of China and the US$20.5bn Hong Kong IPO of AIA as both deals comfortably beat expectations in a crowded market.

IFR Asia’s Loan House of the Year is HSBC. The bank handpicked its deals and delivered, with a record of landmark deals and solid execution that contrasted to a quiet 2009. HSBC put its renewed risk appetite to good use in 2010, expanding beyond its Hong Kong home market and turning in a stellar performance in South-East Asia, particularly in Singapore and Indonesia. It also showed an impressive ability to support big acquisitions with a number of successful syndicated deals.

The Republic of the Philippines built on its reputation as one of Asia’s most sophisticated international borrowers in 2010 and is IFR Asia’s Issuer of the Year. The Philippines launched successive new issues and debt management programmes that captured the mood of the market with timing, dexterity and flawless execution.

Subscribers can read all the awards write-ups here.

Non-subscribers can find the full list of winners here.

IFR Asia’s regional awards

Bank of the Year JP Morgan

Bond House Deutsche Bank

Domestic Bond House HSBC

Equity House Goldman Sachs

Equity-Linked House JP Morgan

Loan House HSBC

Derivatives House Deutsche Bank

Issuer awards

Issuer of the Year Republic of the Philippines

IFR Asia’s sister magazine, IFR, has named Deutsche Bank its 2010 Bank of the Year in a simultaneous announcement. The full review is available here.

The IFR Asia Awards will be presented at the IFR Asia Annual Awards Dinner on February 9th 2011 at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong.

The IFR Asia Awards are selected by IFR’s expert capital markets journalists. Starting in October, the journalists start an exhausting round of interviews with hundreds of market participants. These meetings give an opportunity for capital markets professionals to stake their claim to individual awards and to give their views on the performance of their peers. They also give the reporters the chance to gauge the market’s thoughts on the most important transactions of the year. In addition, the IFR team takes soundings from treasurers and investors before deciding on a shortlist in each award category. The final decision is then made by the senior IFR editorial team.

IFR Asia is Asia’s most authoritative capital markets magazine, delivering in-depth coverage of bond, loan and equity markets, along with industry trends and news. It not only offers insightful analysis of high-profile international deals but also comprehensive coverage of the region’s domestic markets. IFRAsia.com takes this content and combines it with the functionality of the web to provide intra-day news updates, comprehensive deal data and a searchable archive.