Consider the biggest equity deals in the emerging markets over the past 12 months and one bank has acted as global coordinator on more than any other – Morgan Stanley.
Whether it was Agricultural Bank of China’s $22 billion IPO, Petrobras’s $70 billion secondary offering or Russian technology company Yandex’s $1.3 billion debut listing, the US bank was in prime position to drive the deal. One of the keys to Morgan Stanley’s success is that even while it was going through the mill in 2008 it continued to invest in its equities business and never stopped focusing on clients. "We emerged from the crisis stronger," says Paul Taubman, co-president of institutional securities at the firm.
For any equities house the past 12 months have been tough. Global markets have had a topsy-turvy run, with the emerging markets no exception. So the timing and pricing of deals has come under great scrutiny. "When bringing companies to the market we take extreme care to structure the transaction properly," says Taubman.