Awards for Excellence 2002
UBS Warburg
UBS Warburg was a strong contender in each of this year's global awards for excellence in the major product areas, equity, debt, risk management, foreign exchange, and mergers and acquisitions. In each case, to its frustration, there was always another firm with slightly stronger credentials - but these were, in most cases, close decisions. UBS Warburg wins this year's best investment bank award because of its strength across the board, its strong momentum in the key US market and a management discipline that has helped it avoid the credit losses and reputational hits that other investment banks have suffered.
Its list of keynote transactions includes, unsurprisingly, plenty from Europe, many from Asia where it has long been a force and more and more from the US, where its acquisition of PaineWebber in November 2000 has been a significant milestone. In a global investment banking market long dominated by US firms, UBS Warburg has built the capacity to break that hegemony.
In the equity capital markets, UBS Warburg scored a notable success with the $2 billion IPO of reinsurer Converium in December 2001 and it led the $1.3