Reg S: The team attempts to deal with Occupy protesters

Bond house, Domestic bond house HSBC clocked up more records in the Asian bond markets in 2014, helping launch 171 G3 offerings for a total of over US$100bn during IFR’s review period as issuance from the region soared to new heights. However, HSBC had more than just muscle, with the bank putting on display its brainpower in bringing complex issues to market and, in leading the way in bank capital, the defining motif of the year. Despite working on 25% more deals than any other arranger, HSBC managed to maintain its discipline, and avoided...

Bank of the year Citigroup’s global platform proved invaluable in 2014, as the bank helped clients across Asia access low-cost debt capital and surging international equity markets. The US bank has proven its commitment to Asia multiple times since the global financial crisis, and that staying power was one of its greatest assets in a year when major international financings emerged across the region. Citigroup posted its biggest year so far in international bonds, arranging 137 deals for a 9.9% share of the G3 new-issue market in Asia Pacific...

Reaching maturity Against all expectations, 2014 proved to be a record-setting year for the Asian capital markets. International bond sales soared over 30% in 2014, with more than US$200bn raised from Asia, excluding Japan and Australasia. One single PRC firm produced the world’s largest IPO on record, as well as Asia’s biggest US dollar bond, helping Chinese technology companies sell a record volume of shares in the US market. Dim Sum and Kangaroo bond issues each hit new highs, and the world’s two biggest international issues of Additional...

Whole new level All for one and one for all – that seemed to be Alibaba’s motto when it came time for the internet giant’s record-setting IPO. Levelling the playing field turned out to be good business for all concerned in the US$25bn deal. In the old folk tale, only Ali Baba knew how to access the secret cave of treasure. However, with the largest IPO in history, the real-world Alibaba has done a particularly good job of spreading the wealth around. The company’s New York Stock Exchange debut this year is already the stuff of legend; Alibaba...

The Australian and New Zealand bond markets took on new global significance in 2014, as a growing number of international issuers turned to an expanding local investor base in search of alternative sources of funding. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group was at the forefront of this trend, leading Australian dollar issuance and doing more than any other arranger to connect international issuers with Australasian investors. Benefiting from its offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, it was a joint bookrunner on all four of 2014’s Kangaroo issues from...

Calling Mrs Watanabe In September, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba toured major investment centres across the globe as it sought to drum up investor enthusiasm for its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. In Asia, the company took in Hong Kong and Singapore. The only major Asian investor base it failed to try and woo was Japan’s. It was a notable absence, particularly given that 32.4% of Alibaba is under the control of a Japanese citizen, Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank and Japan’s most dynamic entrepreneur. For Japan, the...

Among a growing number of jumbo investment-grade issues out of Asia this year, Hutchison Whampoa’s 144A/Reg S offering stood out for its record-breaking size, smart timing, swift execution and wide distribution. The Hong Kong-based ports-to-telecoms conglomerate made a stylish return to the bond market at the end of October after a gap of two years to raise an impressive US$5.4bn across two currencies and three tranches. Split into a US$2bn 1.625% three-year, a US$1.5bn 3.625% 10-year and a €1.5bn 1.375% seven-year, the issue broke the record...

Domestic bank of the year ANZ had its work cut out in recent years to convince analysts and shareholders that Asia was the key to its expansion, but those efforts paid off in 2014 as it began to turn its new lending relationships in the region into sustainable, higher-margin businesses. Australia’s third-biggest bank, in terms of market value, connected clients across Asia Pacific, delivering an enviable line-up of cross-border financings that highlighted its understanding of regional capital flows. It brought Australian borrowers to Asia,...

Goldman Sachs made its mark in Australasian equities in 2014 with leading roles on Australia’s largest IPO, rights issue, institutional placement and block trade. The bank has honed its local platform and made multiple personnel changes since taking full control of its JB Were joint venture in 2011, and those investments paid off in a year when Australian equity raising continued to rebound, while IPOs gathered pace. Notably, Goldman used its ability to take risk to lure top-tier clients away from its main competitors. Toll-road operator...

Japan takes over With 2015 looming large on the horizon, it is Japan that has Asia’s foreign-exchange markets on tenterhooks. US monetary policy, so long the key to global market liquidity, is playing second fiddle. The US Federal Reserve ended its massive six-year stimulus programme in October without much ruckus. The central bank had already prepared investors for this in July, seven months after it first started trimming its bond-purchase programme, which, at the peak, had pumped US$85bn a month into the global financial system. Fed...

Taking advantage of strong investor demand for exposure to the reawakening Indian economy, Tata Steel made its US dollar debut in style, raising US$1.5bn from a dual-tranche bond. The steel-maker had only tapped the offshore bond market once before 2014, with a Singapore dollar print the previous year, and there was pent-up demand from investors when it finally burst into the US dollar market. Tata Steel announced two tranches, one for 5.5 years and one for 10, to balance its maturities, and the structure helped the steel-maker achieve its aims...

Issuer of the year The Islamic Republic of Pakistan embarked on ambitious capital-raising plans in 2014, presenting investors throughout the international markets with an optimistic turnaround growth story. This allowed Pakistan’s new government to do two things the country of 180m had not been able to do in about seven years: price a US dollar bond and sell shares in the capital markets. In April, the sovereign printed a US$2bn offering bonds at tenors of five and 10 years in April and, in June, it launched a Rs38bn (US$370m) offer for sale in...