FinanceAsia’s Japan Achievement Awards are the industry standard for recognising excellence in finance.
We are pleased to invite Japan’s leading financial institutions to submit for this year’s awards.
Deadline for submissions: Monday, March 3, 2014. All submissions should be emailed to Amber Daswani ([email protected]) or sent as hard copies to: Amber Daswani, FinanceAsia, 23/F, The Centrium, 60 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong.
All pitch meetings must be scheduled no later than March 5, 2014.
Please email [email protected] and copy in [email protected] to discuss the timetable for pitch meetings, which will take place in Tokyo the week of March 10, 2014.
We will announce the awards in the first week in April.
Banks wishing to submit for this year’s awards should look at the below categories, which are broken up into House awards and Deal awards. Please keep your submissions focused on why you deserve a particular house/deal award.
The awards recognize skillful cross-border deal-making and intermediation of cross-border flows.
We may, depending on the level of activity during the year, ultimately decide not to award winners in some of the categories. For deal awards, please list the bookrunner or advisers that worked on the deal, not just your own bank.
HOUSE AWARDS
BEST INVESTMENT BANK
Presentations should demonstrate the bank’s successes across ECM, DCM, M&A and secondary market trading. Banks will be judged on how they have served clients, generated fees and furthered market development.
BEST BANK
This award recognises the financial institution that has achieved the most within commercial banking and at its securities business during the period. The award will also take into consideration the bank’s successful overseas’ strategy and support of Japanese clients as they expand abroad.
BEST M&A HOUSE
The best M&A houses will have been involved in the key cross-border deals. Credit will be given to houses that have initiated market- defining transactions. Conversely, failed transactions will be judged negatively. The ability to show a breadth of transactions across sectors will count favourably. Pitches should specify clearly the announced date of transactions and the close date. Only completed transactions will be given full credit.
BEST ECM HOUSE
This award is designed to reward the bank that has helped Japanese issuers tap international equity capital markets during the year. This award includes IPOs, follow- ons and equity-linked transactions. Aftermarket performance will be taken into consideration.
BEST EQUITY HOUSE
The winner of the best equity house will be able to demonstrate a deft intermediation of cross-border flows, a broad distribution platform for ECM deals, use of cutting edge electronic trading technology, depth of research, access to liquidity and the division’s contribution to the group. Market and survey data may be submitted.
BEST DCM HOUSE
This award focuses on houses that have been most active in helping Japanese borrowers to raise debt in yen, as well as in dollars, euros and other international currencies.
BEST SAMURAI HOUSE
This award recognises houses that issue yen-denominated bonds in Japan for non- Japanese issuers. Credit will be given for both volume of issuance, diversity of issuers and best execution.
BEST FIXED-INCOME HOUSE
BEST FX HOUSE
The winner of the best FX house will be able to demonstrate a deft intermediation of cross-border flows, use of cutting-edge technology, research, provision of liquidity and the division’s contribution to the group. Market and survey data may be submitted.
BEST ISSUER
This award recognises issuers that are frequent and skilful users of the domestic and international debt markets. Both volumes of issuance as well as use of different products and markets will be given weight. We welcome nominations by banks.
BEST LAW FIRM
Law firms should submit a list of deals that helps us to match legal advisers with the deals being pitched by the banks in the categories
above and below. Tell us the name of the matter, the completion date, the client(s), the transaction value. Categories include capital markets, mergers/acquisitions and most other public finance deals.
DEAL AWARDS
Deal awards are given to companies or financial sponsors originating the transaction, with the sup- port of lead bookrunners or advisers. Nominations welcome, but please list all bookrunners or advi- sors that worked on the deal in addition to your own bank.
DEAL OF THE YEAR
BEST ECM DEAL
BEST CROSS-BORDER M&A DEAL
BEST PRIVATE EQUITY DEAL
BEST DCM DEAL
FinanceAsia appreciates that winning our awards requires your time and energy. We have reduced the number of awards on offer, making the process more competitive — and, we hope, more rewarding to the ultimate victors. Good luck and thanks for participating.
AWARDS FAQ
What is the period under consideration for these awards?
March 31, 2013 to February 28, 2014.
Do we give credit for self-led deals?
No.
Is it okay for submissions to contain graphics, tables, charts etc?
Yes.
For individual deal awards, are one- or two-page case studies acceptable?
Yes.
Are deals eligible if they haven’t closed by the submission deadline but are expected to close before year-end?
Yes.
Can we enter one deal in different categories — such as cross-border M&A and deal of the year — with a single pitch document?
Yes.
Do you consider announced deals for the M&A house award?
Yes, for the house award we consider the body of work that banks have been involved with during the calendar year. However, for individual deal awards we only consider closed deals.
Do we need to send a separate submission for the deal of the year category?
No, we will decide this award from the entire universe of deal submissions.
Is there a limit to the number of deals we can submit per category?
In general, we prefer that banks select their single best deal for each category, but we understand that this is not always possible.
