The following award winners will be honoured at a special dinner in Sydney on Wednesday, 1 February at the harbourkitchen&bar, Park Hyatt. For more information on this event, please contact Vicki Shaw at [email protected].
HOUSE AWARDS
Best Local Commercial Bank
ANZ
If there is one bank that can meet a company's credit and cash management needs it is ANZ. The bank has been hiring big guns from rival firms to boost its financing capabilities. It has also continued to expand in Asian markets, giving its Aussie clients consistency offshore and opening new distribution channels.
Best Foreign Commercial Bank
Citigroup
While its competitors sleep, Citigroup's embedded bank mantra wins over more corporate and FI clients. The bank has had a stellar year in the loan and bond markets, and has doubled the size of its cash management and trade finance businesses.
Best Investment Bank
UBS
UBS is still the favourite with corporate and FIG issuers and has the local and overseas reach to distribute sizable transactions. Its dance card this year included deals for Babcock & Brown, Brambles, GE Capital, Goodman Fielder, HBOS, IAG, Seven Network, Woolworths and WMC Resources. UBS also got the job of preparing the scoping study for T3.
Best Investment Bank - New Zealand
First NZ Capital
An alliance with CSFB and a strong local brokerage put First NZ Capital in the path of nearly every significant transaction in New Zealand. This year the bank worked on deals for INL, International Paper, Fonterra, Goodman Fielder, Meridian Energy and Vector. First NZ Capital has the relationships while CSFB has the underwriting power.
Issuer of the Year
Macquarie Bank
In a year when financially engineered vehicles dominated the equity markets, Macquarie Bank listed no fewer than three entities locally and another couple overseas. It also launched nine of its own placements, rights issues and hybrids, including two innovative RAPIDS placements. And the bank continued its acquisition spree, financing its purchases by arranging investor syndicates.
Best Equity House
Macquarie Bank
Macquarie's self-led deals help it to the top of the ECM league tables, but the firm also arranges and underwrites deals for big name Australian companies. In 2005 it had lead roles in the IPOs of Goodman Fielder, Hastie Group, Seek, Transpacific Industries and Tattersalls. It orchestrated two buy-backs for Coles Myer and hybrids for Australand, Bendigo Bank, Gunns and Great Southern Plantations.
Best M&A House
UBS
The Swiss firm continues its reign over M&A activity, advising on more then 35 deals with a value of just under A$35 billion. The bank excelled in putting local and foreign companies together and in a year when hostile takeovers made headlines, UBS advised on more than 70% of these transactions.
Best International Bond House
JPMorgan
JPMorgan executed the largest number of mandated fee-paying international bond issues for Australian corporates in 2005 including US deals for BHP Billiton, Woolworths, Centennial Coal and Foster's and eurobond transactions for AMP and Telstra.
Best Local Bond House
Commonwealth Bank
Commonwealth Bank did more deals than its rival NAB this year arranging over A$10 billion in vanilla and structured transactions. The bank was strong in Kangaroos and also increased its share of the US private placement market. We liked the deals for Wesfarmers, Bank of America and Santos.
Best Securitization House
Deutsche Bank
In 2005, Deutsche Bank played to its strengths as a European bank by utilizing its global distribution platform and widening the market's international investor base. The bank participated in two-thirds of all US dollar-denominated Australian ABS deals, almost half of the euro-denominated deals and 40% of local currency deals.
Best Brokerage
UBS
UBS is number one when it comes to trading on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 2005 it traded shares to the value of A$184 billion dollars, several billion ahead of its next rival. The bank has the ability to utilize global, regional and domestic sales teams to get stock to investors.
Best Equity Research
UBS
UBS's 55 analysts cover over 270 stocks in Australia and enjoy wide distribution of their research via the bank's sales team. This year UBS produced timely reports on PBL and Macquarie Bank, and a great technical piece on testing the breadth of a portfolio. The bank also added a new index to its suite, covering infrastructure and utilities.
Best Financial Law Firm
Mallesons Stephen Jaques
Another great year for this financial law firm with advisory roles for Xstrata, Stockland, Foodland and Fonterra in their M&A dealings. In other areas of the capital markets, Mallesons advised Wells Fargo on its debut Kangaroo and worked on nearly every project finance deal.
DEAL AWARDS
Best IPO
Goodman Fielder, A$2.12 billion
Credit Suisse First Boston, Macquarie Bank, UBS (In New Zealand: ABN AMRO, First NZ Capital)
Scrapping into 2005 by a whisker, the dual re-listing of Goodman Fielder satiated investor appetite for a quality industrial counter and was testimony to Burns Philp's successful transformation of a beleaguered company into a profitable well-managed food conglomerate. It was the largest IPO in Australia since 1998.
Best Secondary Offering
MCG, A$800 million RAPIDS and A$223 million placement
Macquarie Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS
This well-priced and quickly executed deal was used to fund Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group's purchase of ntl:Broadcast. It introduced a new renounceable component to the accelerated priority offer structure and allowed MCG to raise more than its pre-exiting market capitalization.
Best Equity-Linked Deal
SkyCity, A$150 million ACES
UBS
A neat cross-border transaction that saw New Zealand's SkyCity repay debt incurred in the purchase of its Australian businesses with the issue of franked reset exchangeable notes into the Australian market. It stands out for its tax efficiency, its equity optionality and provisions for a change in control event.
Best M&A Deal
Foodland, A$3.8 billion demerger and sale
ABN AMRO, Deutsche Bank, UBS
Foodland's response to a hostile takeover bid from Metcash was to split its Australian and New Zealand businesses into two entities and then sell each to the highest bidder. ABN AMRO advised Foodland while Deutsche Bank represented Metcash in the purchase of the Australian operations and UBS advised Woolworths in the New Zealand acquisition.
Highly commended: San Miguel, A$1.9 billion purchase of National Foods
Best Local Bond Deal
Wells Fargo, A$2 billion 5-year notes
Citigroup, National Australia Bank
A first time issuer in the Australian market, Wells Fargo launched this five-year fixed- and floating-rate Kangaroo at A$1.25 billion and upsized to A$2 billion with 60 accounts participating in the transaction and 75% of the bonds selling domestically. The deal was priced at the tight end of the range.
Best International Bond Deal
Westfield, debut eurobond
ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital
A regular issuer in the US, Westfield moved to diversify its funding sources and match liabilities for its UK operations with a debut EUR600 million seven-year and GBP600 million 12-year deal in June. It was the largest ever unsecured euromarket property transaction and was well received by Asian investors too.
Orica, A$559 million US private placement fully-swapped notes
Citigroup
A favourite with investors, Orica is joint winner of this award for its 10- and 12-year US private placement in March. Orica avoided swap costs and currency hedging by asking investors to do the swap from US dollars into Australian dollars. Citigroup was sole lead manager on the transaction and also provided the cross-currency interest rate swap for investors.
Best Securitization Deal
Liberty Series 2005-1 Trust, A$1.2billion
Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank
This RMBS transaction for specialist finance provider, Liberty Financial, was Australia's largest ever asset-backed securitizationábacked by non-conforming mortgages. The deal priced three days ahead of schedule due to overwhelming investor demand.
Best Project Finance Deal
Loy Yang, A$2.36 billion refinancing
ABN AMRO
The successful completion of this sizable refinancing of a power station asset in Victoria's fraught electricity sector is testimony to the advisory and underwriting skills of ABN AMRO. The new facilities included better pricing, an extended amortization profile, improved covenants and new capital expenditure funding.
Most Innovative Deal
Macquarie Consortium, $1.7 billion purchase of Dyno Nobel
Macquarie Bank
Macquarie Bank's consummate capacity as a deal maker is evident in this joint pursuit of Dyno Nobel with Orica. Macquarie invested in the acquisition, arranged the equity, underwrote Orica's rights issue and hybrid offer, and arranged the debt for the transaction. It is now using its management skills to separate the Dyno Nobel businesses and prepare the company for listing.
Best New Zealand Deal
Vector's NGC acquisition, IPO and debt financing
ABN AMRO, Goldman Sachs JBWere, UBS
This multi-faceted deal saw Vector buy the assets of NGC, run a parallel IPO and takeover offer for minority shareholders and then issue NZ$1.0 billion in credit wrapped bonds. ABN AMRO was intimately involved in the deal; advising Vector on the acquisition, arranging pre-IPO financing and then lead managing the IPO.
