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Taking charge
While hopes of an M&A revival in 2023 never materialised, there was still huge financing work to be undertaken. For its expertise in complex refinancing transactions and bringing fresh money to the table, BNP Paribas is IFR's EMEA Loan House and EMEA Leveraged Finance House of the Year.
Top of the tower
The €1.2bn loan for Blackstone-backed global wireless infrastructure group Phoenix Tower International was the stand-out loan of 2023, a complex multi-jurisdictional transaction which garnered strong support from the infrastructure bank and institutional market despite inherent complexities and choppy market conditions.
Certainty is everything
In a year when volatility was rampant, private lenders behind the financing of EQT’s acquisition of London-listed veterinary drugmaker Dechra Pharmaceuticals provided the vaccine of certainty.
Rocket speed
Aerospace and defence group RTX drew on the support of its relationship banks to put together a financing package at a speed associated with its aircraft.
Tech triumph
Financial technology firm Finastra's US$4.8bn unitranche loan underscored how private debt lenders have established themselves as capital providers of choice for lower-rated companies that find it hard to refinance existing debt.
Financing the future
US technology infrastructure company Aligned used a financing package which blended the structures of an acquisition loan, a delayed draw term loan and project financing to fund its acquisition of Brazil-based data centre firm Odata and establish debt to be used for its further expansion.
Home run
As volatility took centre stage on the back of rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group held its ground impressively, facing off intense competition by relying on its home advantage to deliver a good mix of financings, including several on a sole basis, to become IFR’s Asia-Pacific Loan House of the Year.
Expanding horizons
When BPEA EQT wrapped up US$1.88bn of incremental credit facilities in July 2023 to finance the merger of Hong Kong-based business services companies Tricor and Vistra, it marked the culmination of a months long process which kicked off in late 2022 amid an overhang of stuck deals in the term loan B markets in the US and Europe.
Former ECM banker and self-described origination junkie Craig Coben looks back on the good times, bemoans the present and manages – just about – to be hopeful about the future.
After nearly 40 years in DCM, Chris Tuffey recalls the highs and lows and examines how things have changed. The thrill of the deal is still there, but perhaps not quite what it was.
Rupak Ghose looks back on a banking career in which it felt like everything changed, but some things remained the same.
PR veteran (and former IFR man) Jezz Farr explains what the awards process looks like for the unfortunate souls trying to line up all the egomaniacs involved (and that’s not just the bankers).
PRC institutions take lion's share of Asian investment banking fees, and are steadily expanding into overseas markets.
