We are inviting pitches for the IFR Awards 2024.
The awards year runs from January 1 to December 31.
The winners will be published on ifre.com on February 5 and in the IFR Awards supplement dated February 8.
We will present the awards at a gala dinner at Grosvenor House in London on March 17.
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 1, 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) Private Equity Capital Markets House covers the capital markets activities of private equity firms, including financing of acquisitions in debt markets and disposals through ECM.
5) 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.
6) Bank for Sustainability recognises a bank that puts sustainability and transition at the heart of its business.
7) ESG Financing House recognises the leading bank in ESG underwriting across asset classes.
8) 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.
9) Financing Package represents one financing programme across all asset classes but all parts need not have been executed concurrently.
10) Bond awards do not include structured finance, which is treated separately.
11) Bond and Bond House awards for Financial Capital, SSAR and Covered are cross-currency.
12) US Bond House comprises all US dollar issuance in the US, including Yankees.
13) Yankee bonds are those by European investment-grade corporates and financials in US dollars, excluding EM issuers.
14) Reverse Yankees are bonds issued by US investment-grade corporates and financials in euros and sterling.
15) Only 144A and SEC-registered US dollar issues are eligible for US Bond and Yankee Bond awards.
16) SEC-registered and 144A deals from issuers based in emerging markets are included in Emerging Market categories (along with domestic bond issues, etc).
17) 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).
18) Yen Bond awards include Samurais.
19) Structured Equity comprises equity-linked transactions, including those with derivative components, and structured cash equity transactions. Structured Equity feeds into Equity House awards.
20) Corporate equity derivatives feed into Equity Derivatives House.
21) Restructuring includes formal debt restructurings and balance sheet restructurings.
22) Middle East categories feed into Emerging EMEA Bond House and EMEA Equity House.
23) ESG Insight covers ESG research by banks, boutiques, fund managers, second-party opinion providers and ratings agencies.
24) Regional Financial Bond and Financial Bond House awards cover capital and senior deals, while Financial Capital House includes only the former but is global.
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.
2024 categories
TOP AWARDS
Bank of the Year
Bond House
Equity House
Leveraged Finance House
Derivatives House
Emerging Markets Bond House
ESG Financing House
Structured Equity House
M&A Adviser
Restructuring Adviser
Private Equity Capital Markets House
Bank for Financial Institutions
Bank for Governments
Bank 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
Sports Finance 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
Financial Capital House
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
EMEA High-Yield Bond
North America Leveraged Loan
EMEA Leveraged Loan
STRUCTURED FINANCE AWARDS
North America Structured Finance House
North America CLO House
North America ABS Issue
North America MBS Issue
EMEA Structured Finance House
EMEA CLO 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
International Sukuk
Latin America Bond House
Latin America Bond
Asia Bond House
Asia Bond
RESTRUCTURING AWARDS
Americas Restructuring House
Americas Restructuring
EMEA Restructuring House
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 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 Equity Issue
US Mid-Market Equity House
STRUCTURED EQUITY AWARDS
Americas Structured Equity House
Americas Structured Equity Issue
EMEA Structured Equity Issue
Asia-Pacific Structured Equity House
Asia-Pacific Structured Equity Issue
