HSBC
HSBC’s capital markets team is at the top of its game in the Middle East. It is the go-to lender of choice for any Chinese firm looking not simply to raise capital along the Belt and Road, but also to access the kind of sophisticated financial solutions that can only be provided by a handful of global lenders.
The UK-headquartered lender has been busy this past year. When State Grid International Development, a division of State Grid Corporation of China, wanted to buy a 49% stake in Oman Electricity Transmission, HSBC was there. It acted as sole financial adviser to the Beijing-based firm, the world’s largest utility by revenues, stumping up an undisclosed sum to finance the deal.
That transaction marked the first privatization of a transmission or distribution power grid in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as State Grid’s first-ever strategic investment in the region.
When China Railway Construction Corporation and the UAE’s National Projects and Construction secured a mandate to build the country’s high-speed rail network, HSBC assembled a $558 million package of guarantees, cash management, forex solutions, and trade, supply chain and receivables finance.
And when the second Belt & Road Bankers Roundtable was held in Beijing in April 2019, the bank was on hand to sign a memorandum of understanding as one of the lenders to a $843 million Sinosure-covered facility, to build 20 new residential towers in the New Administrative Capital near Cairo.
The deal was signed by HSBC and China State Construction Engineering, the main contractor, three months later.