NDB Investment Bank
Long term, this will be a keenly contested award. Local and foreign banks are competing hard to gain access to, or retain the loyalty of, the island’s leading corporates, while a sleepy local investment banking scene stands to benefit from Colombo International Financial City, a financial hub taking shape off the capital’s coast. But NDB Investment Bank, a division of National Development Bank, with SLRs110 billion ($710 million) in assets under management, is the clear winner in this category, and may remain so for years to come.
NDBIB, which had a stellar year in 2016, continued to perform in 2017 under chief executive Darshan Perera, completing 40 capital markets deals worth $360 million. It was joint financial adviser and manager to the SLRs960 million initial stock offering of RIL Property, and sole financial adviser to the IPO of Ooredoo Maldives, a division of the Qatari telecoms giant, which raised $27 million via the participation of 6,500 investors from the Maldives. This last deal marked the first time a Sri Lankan bank completed a stock listing unaided on foreign soil.
Notable M&A transactions include the SLRs1.3 billion sale of an 80% stake in Colombo Trust Finance to telecoms operator Dialog Axiata in September 2017, with NDBIB advising the buyer. A month later, it oversaw the sale of a 70% stake in fertilizer firm Unipower to CIC Holdings, for SLRs340 million. And it continued to rule the roost in the debt markets, acting as sole financial adviser to Lion Brewery Ceylon’s SLRs1.5 billion structured debt facility, as well as helping Sampath Bank to issue the country’s first Basel III-compliant debenture in a deal that raised SLRs6 billion.