What the 30-year league tables tell us
As part of Asiamoney’s 30th anniversary coverage, we asked data provider Dealogic to help us compile league tables based on the last three decades of activity in Asia’s financial markets. We put together deals by sector – M&A, debt and equity capital markets – and split them up by country, giving a 30-year leader for each subsector. These are league tables based on tens of thousands of deals – no slicing and dicing of the field parameters to generate bespoke results here. What can we learn?
First, that competition in Asia’s markets has always been tough. With the exception of Citi in debt capital markets, no firm dominates a group of countries in a particular sector. Second, that while we tend to think of certain firms as particularly strong in certain countries, no individual bank sweeps the board across the disciplines in any country: not Credit Suisse in Indonesia, not UBS in Australia, nor DBS in Singapore or CIMB in Malaysia; and not even HSBC in Hong Kong. Third, that for most of the last three decades, it’s the international firms that have led the way. Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Credit Suisse – these are the names that crop up again and again among our top five rankings.
Despite the growth of local competition, it remains the case in many markets to this day. Longevity and track record count, and the local firms cannot build it overnight. We invite you to enjoy staring at the results and forming your own conclusions as to what we can learn from 30 years of league tables – and congratulate all the firms that top them for standing the test of time.