Awards for Excellence 2019
"A big theme of this year has been a greater focus on government balance sheets as a whole,” explains Michael Ellam, global head of public-sector banking at HSBC. “Before, you would look at the income deficit and how to finance it. Now we are working to optimise the balance sheet.”
Ellam joined HSBC in 2013 after stints as Downing Street’s director of communications under Gordon Brown and director general of international finance at HM Treasury.
“Public-sector business is central to the investment banking franchise,” he tells Euromoney. “We have a dedicated team of 70 bankers globally and work in 80 countries with sector-specific public-sector experts.”
These skills have been brought to bear in the efficient management of state assets for a number of borrowers this year: HSBC was sole financial adviser to the city government of Sharjah in the UAE in its majority investment in Invest Bank and executed the tender offer and consent solicitation for Mexico City Airport Trust after the project was scrapped.