Morgan Stanley
It has been a difficult time to shine in the equities market in the past few years but Morgan Stanley has managed to lead in some of the market defining transactions of 2002/03 and the judges were impressed with Morgan Stanley’s “complete” business offering, which combines equity and credit expertise.
It was bookrunner and adviser for the largest deals of 2002 and 2003, first for Aegon and this year for France Telecom. It has also maintained strong league positions, ranking number one in European equity, equity-linked and combined league tables for the year to date. In the US, it is leading the equity and equity-linked issuance rankings. Industry estimates for its market share are around the 16.6% mark.
John Hyman, managing director, global capital markets, says: “Having a very complete business offering and a global capacity is crucial in the equity capital markets – that is why the combination of our debt and equity businesses has been so successful. Particularly in the last 18 months or so, when deal flow has been so much lower than during the bull market, if you miss a trend then it has a significant impact on your bottom line because it is difficult to make up for it in other parts of the business.”
While the bank has built considerable strength in areas that benefit the firm in difficult markets, such as rights issues, and has a strong secondary market franchise, Mr Hyman is confident that the nascent recovery of the past few months is more than a flash in the pan, and he is increasingly positive for the market overall. “Over the last couple of years, ECM was dominated by recapitalisations and rights issues, as well as privatisations in emerging economies, but we are now beginning to see companies going beyond shoring up their balance sheet to focus on growth, and investors looking for more exposure to equities.”
