HSBC in clean sweep of major Asian debt house awards

HSBC’s debt capital markets business has won an unprecedented number of awards in recent reviews of 2011 published by Asia’s main financial publications.

HSBC was selected by IFRAsia as Bond House, Domestic Bond House and Dim Sum Bond House of the Year for 2011. From FinanceAsia, it was named Best International Bond House, Best Local Currency Bond House, Best Sovereign Bond House and Best Offshore RMB Bond House of the Year. Meanwhile Asiamoney accorded HSBC with the Best Debt Arranger and Best Loans Arranger of the Year.

IFRAsia commented that: “The Bank’s consistent performance across every cross-section of Asia’s international bond markets represented as close to complete market domination as anyone is ever likely to get.”

FinanceAsia began its write-up by noting: “HSBC took a near clean sweep of the awards this year thanks to its unprecedented dominance in both the G3 and local currency markets. This year, it pulled out all the stops and drew sharply ahead with a market share of 12.5% for Asia ex-Japan G3 bonds. This was a sweeping margin over its nearest rivals.”

Asiamoney noted: “The sheer depth and diversity of the deals HSBC played a role in, far outweighs its competitors in the space, with deals ranging from Sukuks, Basel III-compliant, liability management, corporate hybrids, and even the first Maple bond – a Canadian dollar deal issued outside of Canada - from an Asian credit.”

Robin Phillips, HSBC’s Head of Global Banking and Markets for Asia Pacific, explained the firm’s success as follows: “Our ability to offer objective advice covering the full gamut of products and currencies is recognised by clients. HSBC houses cross-border and local currency DCM, as well as syndicated finance under the same roof. Add to that our strengthening equity markets business, few institutions can compare to our full suite of capital markets products. Our unparalleled footprint in Asia has also seen us execute deals across a broader range of markets than any of our competitors.”

HSBC has clinched all the new offshore RMB award categories that have been added this year to reflect the most exciting development in Asia’s capital markets. IFRAsia commented: “The single biggest development in Asia’s local currency markets again revolved around the fast-growing Dim Sum front, where HSBC built on its leading position with a number of high-profile mandates from Chinese and international clients.” FinanceAsia highlighted: “In the offshore RMB space, HSBC was ahead of its closest rival by quite a stretch … it had a market share of 20.2%. Its dominance is clearly testament to the strength of its relationships and franchise in Hong Kong.”

Another area seeing a quiet revolution has been Asia’s sovereign debt market, which saw an unusually high number of issuance in 2011, with ten deals totaling US$12.7bn, surpassing the US$7.9bn seen in 2010. And HSBC has led on nine of the ten sovereign deals in Asia. FinanceAsia noted: “As Asian countries have brought more interesting deals to their local currency bond markets, it has further allowed HSBC to shine in the sovereign space.”

HSBC has held leading roles in a number of landmark deals that have received recognition, including ICBC’s RMB1.5bn Basel III-compliant bonds; the long-awaited inaugural US dollar global bond by Indonesian SOE Pertamina; South-east Asia’s first inflation-linked bond, for the Kingdom of Thailand; Asia’s first major securitisation since the financial crisis, via CapitaLand unit Silver Oak’s commercial mortgage-backed securities issue; the world’s first ever 10-year US dollar sovereign sukuk, for the Government of Malaysia; Korean National Oil Corp’s 5-year market opening deal; and Citic Pacific’s perpetual hybrid bond which re-opened Asia’s corporate hybrid market.