SG Corporate and Investment Banking
Equity derivatives was a tight contest this year. SG Corporate and Investment Banking’s commitment to the sector and ongoing innovation tipped the judges, edging out Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital who have done much to gain traction in this product area. As a major player in all fields of equity derivatives, SG has become a reference counterpart for a wide range of clients, which include many retail distributors, private banks, institutional investors and hedge funds. A balanced business mix (volatility trading, arbitrage, flow sales, and structured products) as well as geographical coverage (major successes in Asia, the Middle East, in most European countries and, to a lesser extent, in America), makes for a very robust strategy. In addition, SG’s technical know-how has fuelled innovation, a principal driver of ongoing success. “On the arbitrage side, the continual experimentation with different trading models in order to implement new types of hedge fund-like strategies have set SG apart from many of our counterparts, while on the structured product side, correlation business has almost become an SG trademark. The search for new pay-out formulas, optimised wrappers, and new underlying assets (hybrid products, mutual fund-linked products or products based on hedge funds) have allowed us to stay on the cutting edge of innovation for the sector,” says Christophe Mianné, global head of equity derivatives. In terms of innovation, the judges highlighted the Trigger Capital Guaranteed Fund, introduced earlier this year in Singapore and Hong Kong, from Lyxor Asset Management, SG CIB’s asset management business. Designed to exploit a low interest rate environment and a forecast upturn in equity markets, the fund gives investors access to possible high returns in a variety of market conditions and over a potential short maturity, together with a 10% minimum guaranteed return.
