HSBC
Such was HSBC’s supremacy across Hong Kong’s investment banking sector that some of its competitors for our awards left the bank off their self-promoting submission tables, arguing (unconvincingly) that HSBC was a local bank and thus doesn’t qualify in Hong Kong’s international capital markets.
Note to HSBC’s foreign competitors: it does, providing the heft from both its domains, offshore and local. And, further note, that would be Hong Kong-based Deborah Leerhsen and Wallace Lam, HSBC’s joint co-heads of global banking, sitting opposite you at the deal-bidding table, competing with, indeed often besting you for some of the territory’s chunkiest mandates.
HSBC was Hong Kong’s leading debt and capital markets house in 2018. It dominates G3 (dollar/euro/yen) fundraising in Hong Kong, bringing the most Hong Kong issuers across various business sectors to the market and nailing landmark transactions that HSBC says have set new benchmarks in terms of size, structure and execution.
During the award period, HSBC achieved 12.5% market share, which was nearly double that of its closest rival, and acted as bookrunner for Hong Kong borrowers in 16 out of 26 transactions.
HSBC led the league tables for G3 bonds, Hong Kong dollar bonds and offshore renminbi bonds by some margin. It snared 12.5% of all G3 bond issues, well ahead of Paribas at 7.5%, and took 23.3% of the renminbi bond sector, putting it well ahead of Standard Chartered at 19.5%; it also snatched 32% of the Hong Kong dollar bond market, almost three times the share of runner-up StanChart. Notable deals included three Eurobonds for Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings, a €1.25 billion duo in April 2018 that were followed up by a €500 million issue in December.
In equity capital markets, HSBC raised over $18 billion for Hong Kong clients in 15 deals, and was particularly active among Chinese issuers, notably getting a piece of the huge Xiaomi and Ping An floats. It helped to bring Chinese property management company A-Living Services to market, marking Hong Kong’s first H-share listing to be spun off from a red-chip listed parent, the Guangdong-based property giant Agile, which went public in Hong Kong in 2005.