IFR Middle East Awards 2014

IFR’s inaugural Middle East Awards, which were presented at a gala dinner in Dubai at the end of March, were a great success. Senior investment bankers and their key clients assembled in the Ritz-Carlton DIFC to celebrate a significant year in the region’s capital markets and showcase some major achievements.

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IFR Middle East Awards Photos

IFR’s inaugural Middle East Awards dinner took place at the Ritz-Carlton DIFC in Dubai on March 31, extending our global awards platform to a new capital markets region. Having started IFR’s Awards in 1980 in London, the franchise expanded to Hong Kong in the late 1990s, capturing the build-out in Asian capital markets, and then to New York in 2010 for the US, Canadian and Latin American markets. Increasingly deep and vibrant capital markets in the Middle East allowed a wide array of issuers to tap both conventional and Islamic segments last...

On its way back

Surging equity valuations combined with market liberalisation and an upgrade to emerging market status should finally attract Gulf family-owned companies to equity capital markets.

Islamic Deal of the Year: Sadara’s SR7.5bn sukuk

A long-term project: For providing the government with an invaluable tool to fund a massive infrastructure programme and for its creativity in structure, Sadara’s SR7.5bn (US$2bn) project sukuk issue is IFR’s Islamic Deal of the Year.

Middle East Deal of the Year: Majid Al Futtaim’s US$500m 7.125% perpetual

The investor comes first: For bringing a pioneering deal to market and for prioritising the company’s long-term relationship with investors over pricing, MAF’s US$500m 7.125% perpetual non-call five note issue is IFR’s Middle East Deal of the Year.

Issuer of the Year: Emirates

Spreading its wings: Few regional firms can match the funding programme of airline Emirates. Few, therefore, have to be so nimble in tapping different structures and investor types at the right time to reach targets. For breaking new ground, including templates others could mimic, Emirates is IFR’s Middle East Issuer of the Year.

Regional Investment Bank of the Year: Emirates NBD Capital

More than a local bank: For consolidating its strength in its home market and making significant progress abroad, Emirates NBD Capital is IFR’s Middle East Regional Investment Bank of the Year.

Middle East Investment Bank of the Year: HSBC

Part of the furniture: There’s no doubting HSBC’s commitment to the Middle East. This commitment has paid off in the form of a host of market-leading, innovative transactions across the capital markets. HSBC is IFR’s Middle East Investment Bank of the Year.

Keys to the Kingdom

It’s been quite a year for Saudi Arabia’s deep-and-developed capital markets, one of their best ever, yet we could be on the cusp of something even more special.

Gulf bond issuers get racy

The market for Gulf bonds underwent something of a transformation in 2013, morphing from a conservative and fairly unadventurous place into a fount of innovation and novel ideas that led to a series of regional firsts and put the region firmly on the capital markets map.

Hot on the agenda

Saudi petrochemicals joint venture Sadara and Abu Dhabi water and power plant Shuweihat 2 demonstrated in 2013 that institutional investors can offer a non-bank channel to fund infrastructure in the region. As disintermediation towards capital markets solutions builds, project bonds are set to explode.

Slow burn

Despite early promise, the sluggish global economy kept well-funded Middle East corporates away from bank lending in the first quarter of 2014, as M&A remained firmly off the agenda.

Boom times return

Real estate prices are booming again in Dubai – as is the construction sector. But does that mean that a bubble to rival that of 2006–2008 is developing once more?

Oasis or mirage?

GCC countries have avoided the volatility of other emerging markets and become a safe haven, but getting exposure is another issue.

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