Awards for Excellence 2017
Morgan Stanley dominated M&A league tables during our review period, but winning the best bank for advisory award is about more than scale. What is more impressive is the way Morgan Stanley has put itself at the heart of the central trends of Asia-Pacific M&A, usually getting itself on to the lucrative sell side along the way.
Clearly, outbound M&A from Asia is a big theme, even if Chinese outbound deals tailed off towards the end of the awards period as policy attitudes began to change in China.
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Standouts included advising on the sale of Supercell to Tencent, the largest-ever Chinese outbound tech M&A; Avolon and Bohai Leasing/CIT Commercial Air, the largest-ever Sino-US M&A; Sompo/Endurance Specialty, among the largest-ever Japanese FIG M&A deals; and Midea/KUKA, the largest-ever Sino-German M&A. The Morgan Stanley client list during our review period also included Komatsu, Fortress Investment, Anglo American, Sinopec, Huatai and Silk Road Fund on big outbound-from-Asia deals.
Another key trend is privatization and acquisition in the energy and infrastructure sectors, and here too the bank was everywhere, advising Cheung Kong Infrastructure on the Australia takeover of Duet Group, the port of Melbourne on its purchase by the Lonsdale Consortium and Petronas on its Saudi Aramco deal. In sponsor-led deals, it advised KKR and MBK Partners on buy-side deals, and Starwood Capital, Accordia Golf and Bain Capital on sell-sides.