Morgan Stanley
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There’s never been a tougher period over which to pick a stand-out performance by a global investment bank than the past 12 months. Records tumbled everywhere – in size of deals, and in volume of deals in high-fee business such as leveraged finance and mergers and acquisitions. This fed through to record revenues on trading desks and earnings that set new benchmarks for the industry. According to figures from Boston Consulting Group, total revenues of the leading 10 investment banks in the first quarter of 2007 were 23% higher than in the same period a year earlier; of the $58.6 billion these banks earned over that period, corporate finance and advisory revenues grew faster than trading revenues, posting a 31.5% rise to $11.7 billion, while trading rose by 20.7% to $46.9 billion.
Many contenders had strong claims for recognition: Goldman Sachs remained the star performer, at least until its Q2 2007 results which indicated that earnings growth had slowed as the sub-prime market fallout gathered pace. It remains the franchise that every competitor follows and fears.