IFR Awards 2023: Call for entries

9 min read

We are inviting pitches for the IFR Awards 2023.

The awards year runs from January 1 to December 31.

The winners will be published on ifre.com on February 2 and in the IFR Awards supplement dated February 3.

We will present the awards at a gala dinner at Grosvenor House in London on March 18.

To help with our selections, banks, advisers and issuers may submit brief written presentations along with supporting data. IFR journalists will also organise pitch meetings.

Pitching is entirely optional and consideration for an award will not be limited to advisers or issuers that participate in this way.

All written pitches should reach us by November 3, with pitch meetings to be scheduled in November and December.

Pitches will be a combination of virtual and in-person meetings.

We will continue to monitor the market until the end of the year and banks may submit addenda to include significant deals that price after submitting their pitches.

In your presentations for house awards you may want to summarise achievements in the awards year. For instance:

• How has your institution progressed over the course of the year?

• What strategic goals have been met?

• How have they been achieved?

• In what ways has your institution adapted to the trends that have driven market activity during the year?

• What has been noteworthy about your deal roster, whether in terms of size, geographical and/or sectoral diversification, degree of innovation or complexity?

Presentations should include individual summaries of the main relevant transactions. Separate documents should be submitted for each major asset class.

Pitch meetings with IFR journalists are limited to two hours per asset class.

The contents of pitch meetings will be “on the record”, though comments can be made “off the record” if specifically stated at the time.

Pitch documents should be emailed to IFRAwards@lseg.com for Global, EMEA and Americas categories. Submissions for Asia-Pacific categories should be sent to daniel.stanton@lseg.com.

Please indicate for which awards you are pitching, giving appropriate contact details.

Final selections will be made by the senior editorial team.

Notes on award categories:

1) Banks do not need to be active across the whole region to be considered for regional house awards. Banks do not need to be active in all regions to qualify for global awards.

2) M&A Adviser and M&A Deal cover transactions completed in the awards year.

3) For M&A-related financing, loans will only be considered if the M&A transaction has completed in the awards year, as it is at this point they are funded. Bonds need to have priced within the awards year but are not contingent on the M&A having also completed.

4) Bank for Financial Institutions, Governments and Financial Sponsors covers all capital markets activity across regions, from LME to rights issues, privatisations to century bonds, LBOs to IPOs and M&A and everything in between.

5) Bank for Sustainability will recognise a bank that puts ESG/sustainable issues at the heart of its business, as well as being active in related capital market financings.

6) ESG Financing House recognises the leading banks in ESG underwriting across asset classes.

7) US Diversity and Inclusion House is given to a US-based minority, women or veteran-owned firm and covers activity across all asset classes. The award recognises the commitment, performance and expertise of the firm in underwriting securities offerings.

8) Financing Package represents one financing programme across all asset classes but all parts need not have been executed concurrently.

9) Bond awards do not include structured finance, which is treated separately.

10) Bond and Bond House awards for Financial, SSAR and Covered are cross-currency.

11) US Bond House comprises all US dollar issuance in the US, including Yankees.

12) Yankee bonds are those by European investment-grade corporates and financials in US dollars, excluding EM issuers.

13) Reverse Yankees are bonds issued by US investment-grade corporates and financials in euros and sterling.

14) Only 144A and SEC-registered US dollar issues are eligible for US Bond and Yankee Bond awards.

15) SEC-registered and 144A deals from issuers based in emerging markets are included in Emerging Market categories (along with domestic bond issues, etc).

16) Regional Bond House awards are for any issuers in the relevant regional currencies, for example Europe Investment-Grade Corporate Bond awards are for investment-grade corporates in European currencies (including Eurodollars).

17) Yen Bond awards include Samurais.

18) Structured Equity comprises equity-linked transactions, including those with derivative components, and structured cash equity transactions. Structured Equity feeds into Equity House awards.

19) Corporate equity derivatives feed into Equity Derivatives House.

20) Restructuring includes formal debt restructurings and balance sheet restructurings.

21) Middle East categories feed into Emerging EMEA Bond House and EMEA Equity House.

22) The ESG Insight award is for cutting-edge ESG research by banks, boutiques, fund managers, second party opinion providers and ESG ratings agencies.

23) Capital Market Adviser is for deals where an institution is purely providing advice and not executing/underwriting/distributing.

If you have any questions about the awards process, please contact us via IFRAwards@lseg.com or individually at:

Editor Matthew Davies, +44 20 4530 3050, matthew@lseg.com

Deputy editor Owen Wild, +44 20 4530 2517, owen.wild@lseg.com

For Americas specific questions contact Stephen Lacey, +1 646 794 7390, stephen.lacey@lseg.com

In Asia-Pacific contact IFR Asia Editor Daniel Stanton, +65 6929 9311, daniel.stanton@lseg.com

Details on the event will be available at www.ifrawards.com.

2023 categories

TOP AWARDS

Bank of the Year

Bond House

Equity House

Loan House

Derivatives House

Emerging Markets Bond House

ESG Financing House

Structured Equity House

M&A Adviser

Restructuring Adviser

Capital Markets Adviser*

Bank for Financial Institutions

Bank for Governments

Bank/Adviser for Financial Sponsors

Bank for Sustainability

US Diversity and Inclusion House

ISSUER AWARDS

SSAR Issuer

Financial Issuer

Corporate Issuer

Sustainable Issuer

Financing Package

M&A Deal

BOND AWARDS

US Bond House

US Bond

Yankee Bond House

Yankee Bond

Reverse Yankee Bond House*

Reverse Yankee Bond

Euro Bond House

Euro Bond

Yen Bond House

Yen Bond

Sterling Bond House

Sterling Bond

Swiss Franc Bond House

Swiss Franc Bond

North America Investment-Grade Corporate Bond House

North America Investment-Grade Corporate Bond

Europe Investment-Grade Corporate Bond House

Europe Investment-Grade Corporate Bond

North America Financial Bond House

North America Financial Bond

Europe Financial Bond House

Europe Financial Bond

SSAR Bond House

SSAR Bond

Covered Bond House

Covered Bond

LEVERAGED FINANCE AWARDS

North America Leveraged Finance House

EMEA Leveraged Finance House

North America High-Yield Bond

Europe High-Yield Bond

North America Leveraged Loan

EMEA Leveraged Loan

STRUCTURED FINANCE AWARDS

North America Structured Finance House

North America ABS Issue

North America MBS Issue

EMEA Structured Finance House

EMEA Structured Finance Issue

Asia-Pacific Structured Finance Issue

EMERGING MARKETS AWARDS

Emerging EMEA Bond House

Emerging EMEA Bond

Middle East Bond House

Middle East Bond*

Latin America Bond House

Latin America Bond

Asia Bond House

Asia Bond

RESTRUCTURING AWARDS

Americas Restructuring

EMEA Restructuring

Asia-Pacific Restructuring

DERIVATIVES AWARDS

Equity Derivatives House

Credit Derivatives House

Interest Rate Derivatives House

Foreign Exchange Derivatives House

Commodity Derivatives House

LOAN AWARDS

Americas Loan House

North America Loan

Latin America Loan

North America Private Debt Loan

EMEA Loan House

EMEA Loan

EMEA Private Debt Loan

Asia-Pacific Loan House

Asia-Pacific Loan

ESG AWARDS

Americas ESG Financing House

EMEA ESG Financing House

Asia-Pacific ESG Financing House

Sustainable Bond

Sustainable Loan

Sustainable Equity Issue

ESG Insight*

EQUITY AWARDS

North America Equity House

North America IPO

North America Secondary Equity Issue

Latin America Equity House

Latin America Equity Issue

EMEA Equity House

EMEA IPO

EMEA Secondary Equity Issue

Middle East Equity House*

Middle East Equity Issue*

Asia-Pacific Equity House

Asia-Pacific IPO

Asia-Pacific Secondary Issue

US Mid-Market Equity House

STRUCTURED EQUITY AWARDS

Americas Structured Equity House

Americas Structured Equity Issue

EMEA Structured Equity House

EMEA Structured Equity Issue

Asia-Pacific Structured Equity Issue

* New categories for 2023