Over 250 business elites from across the region gathered in Hong Kong to attend a glamorous gala dinner on Wednesday as FinanceAsia awarded outstanding institutions for their contributions to Asia's financial markets in the annual Achievement Awards.
As one of the most influential events in Asia-Pacific's investment community, FinanceAsia's Achievement Awards 2018 was once again well attended by investors, businessmen, bankers and advisors.
From Bangladesh to India, from Cambodia to Singapore, from Laos to Indonesia, our winners this year won recognition and took home their awards after enjoying a sumptuous five-course meal at the Grand Ballroom at Grand Hyatt Hotel Hong Kong.
Walmart was the centre of attention of the night as the American retail giant won the prestigious Deal of the Year award with its $16 billion acquisition of a 77% stake in Flipkart, India's leading online marketplace.
Ant Financial was another highlight of the evening because the Chinese online payment giant was named Best Digital Financial Services Firm for the second year in a row, while its $14 billion series C fundraising was awarded Best Equity Financing and Best China Deal.
Reliance Industries, by pulling off two syndicated loans totalling $3.2 billion last year, was named Best Borrower of the Year.
There was fierce competition between banks and advisors last year, and their roles have become more important as geo-political uncertainties weighed on Asia's economic growth and made transactions more difficult to close.
Goldman Sachs was among the big winners of the night, taking home three awards including Best Equity House, Best M&A House and Best Global Private Bank in Asia.
Citi took home the Best Bank award after reporting a strong year for its corporate and investment banking business in Asia-Pacific.
Moody's Investors Service won the Best Ratings Agency award, one of the three new categories this year as FinanceAsia honours a bigger group of outstanding institutions. CIMB was named Best Islamic Finance House, while DBS took home our inaugural Best Project Finance House award.
"Bringing together buyers and sellers during uncertain times is never easy and volatility returned with a vengeance in 2018," said Alison Tudor-Ackroyd, Managing Editor of FinanceAsia. "There is no doubt that these awards are well deserved."
FinanceAsia also extended its famous tradition of challenging our guests with brain-racking questions in a highly-competitive quiz towards the end of the night. This year, Citi claimed the Quiz Master award with an impressive score of 29 points and the team was rewarded with a dozen bottles of champagne.
Check out a selection of the evening's photos below. We will publish more photos of the event in due course.
FinanceAsia would like to congratulate all winners once again and is looking forward to meeting everyone again next year.
