Reg S: The bank separates its loans and bonds desks

National Australia Bank’s focus on corporate bonds, bank capital and securitisation paid dividends in 2015 as the Australasian debt markets continued to expand beyond their traditional bank-dominated core. NAB was at the forefront of key developments during IFR’s review period, combining its focus on higher-margin business with its deep corporate relationships to deliver a range of innovative deals across the Australian fixed-income arena. All told, NAB was on 82 Australian dollar transactions, including securitisations, but excluding self-led...

The definition of insanity, Albert Einstein once postulated, is to do the same thing over and over again and each time expect different results. We all do it, of course: yet no one person or institution is more insane than the nation-state that adamantly refuses to learn from past mistakes. If a plan failed last time, governments often tell themselves, it was surely the result of bad implementation – and not because it was just a bad plan. So why not try it again? Over the past year, we have seen that sort of skewed thinking again invade the...

After all the ups and downs throughout the year, 2015 is ending much as it began. The US Federal Reserve’s policy meetings continue to dictate market sentiment, China’s economy is still cooling, and energy prices remain depressed. Volatility was the one constant feature of the past 12 months, affecting markets from Chinese equities to US Treasuries, South-East Asian currencies or commodity prices. While many of those benchmarks are back close to their starting point, however, the volatility of 2015 may have a longer-lasting significance as...

UBS has been facing some reinvigorated competition in Australasian equities of late, but it came back stronger in 2015, leading the way with jumbo bank recapitalisations, arranging the largest IPO of the year and maintaining its focus on innovation. Capital-raising activity of Australia’s banks was a key theme throughout the year. After regulators asked the country’s major lenders to set aside more capital against potential loan losses, the big four banks all completed major equity offerings to raise a combined A$16.56bn (US$11.9bn). In an...

DBS marked 2015 with more record profits, a still-dominant position in Singapore and continued expansion beyond its home market. It played a bigger role in connecting clients across Asia and added to its suite of capital markets products in a challenging year for its home market. While a volatile China cast a shadow over South-East Asia, DBS stuck with its clients and resisted the urge to chase short-term business. Its measured approach to investment banking has seen it avoid many of the pitfalls that hurt its more aggressive peers, and...

Narendra Modi swept to power in the world’s second-most populous country with promises of bold reform. But his privatisation plan, one of the cornerstones of an ambitious campaign to revitalise the Indian economy, has had only mixed success. To help balance the budget, Modi pledged to raise upward of US$10bn by selling minority stakes in state enterprises to the private sector. He has managed barely half that amount, and many of the part-privatisations were near-disasters, salvaged at the very last moment by state-run investment vehicles. In...

Westpac Banking grabbed market share and executed a diverse range of deals on its way to a stellar year in a highly competitive market. The bank won 20 lead roles for a broad range of transactions, including corporate deals, project financings and acquisition loans across multiple sectors. It worked on a sole basis on as many as eight of these financings, totalling over A$3.7bn (US$2.7bn), and improved its market share from 2014, vaulting to the top of the bookrunner ranking for the Australian loan market, up from third position a year...

India’s biggest private sector company had much to think about in 2015. Reliance Industries was part of the way through financing an ambitious capital expenditure programme, at a time when interest rates, India’s economy and energy prices were all adding to uncertainty for investors. In a volatile year, Reliance raised US$7.9bn of financing and completed funding for its capital commitments on its two major projects – the expansion of its Jamnagar oil refinery and the buildout of the Reliance Jio Infocomm mobile network. It stretched the average...

Asia will need to search far and wide to meet a huge energy and environmental bill as it turns its back on fossil-fuel dependency. The fast-growing pool of funds in the green bond market seems an obvious solution, but, so far, the region is paying no more than lip service to the concept of environmentally responsible funding. To change that, the new format will require borrowers to retune their approach to cost and transparency – two areas that have historically proven major hurdles for Asian companies and governments. More incentives are...

ICBC added to its credentials as a full-service bond house in 2015 as it dominated the onshore market, facilitated landmark international renminbi deals and helped Chinese issuers access foreign currency funding. The bank reaffirmed its number one position in the domestic renminbi market, arranging Rmb156bn (US$24.5bn) of local offerings during the review period, according to Thomson Reuters data. As monetary easing lured more Chinese issuers into the local capital markets, ICBC’s extensive network played to its advantage, helping many offshore...

Asian issuers faced a year of mixed fortunes in the international bond markets in 2015, as near-perfect conditions gave way to months of uncertainty over the Greek debt crisis and China’s stock-market crash. Through the ups and downs, Citigroup was a constant presence on the most significant international deals from Asia, and the only top house to make it through IFR’s review period without a failed G3 deal to its name. Citigroup’s lean team of debt capital markets specialists did more than their fair share to develop the Asian bond markets,...