The Hindu Business Line : Morgan Stanley bags award for Reliance, ICICI Bank deals

ICICI Bank's $1.75-billion concurrent American Depository Receipt and domestic share sale deal, also by JM Morgan Stanley, received FinanceAsia's best follow-on deal.

Among the other top investment banking awards for Asia Pacific ex-Japan, ex-Australia, FinanceAsia and The Asset, (Asian financial publications) also recognised JM Morgan Stanley as 2005's `Best Equity House' and `Best Financial Institutions House,' said Mr Vishal N. Kampani, Executive Director and Head, Corporate Finance, JM Morgan Stanley. "This has been a great year for India with the $4.8-billion Reliance restructuring deal and the ICICI Bank $1.75-billion concurrent ADR and domestic share sale winning accolades," he said.

"Morgan Stanley has delivered an impressively diverse array of business this year — from mid-cap Chinese IPOs to world record beating listings; it has advised on transformational bank M&A as well as critical deals for India Inc," a JM Morgan Stanley press release quoted FinanceAsia as saying.

Looking ahead on 2006, Mr Gokul Laroia, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley, said China and India continue to attract attention as companies look for raising capital for business expansion.

"Last two years have been terrific," Mr Laroia said, adding that sectors such as infrastructure, telecom, technology and banking are expected to witness continued activity this year.

The press release quoted Mr Mike Berchtold, President and Head of Investment Banking for Morgan Stanley in Asia Pacific, as saying, "The region's capital markets continue to develop and we expect equity issuance to be up by 20 per cent on 2005's level driven by continuing activity in China, India and Korea.

"We expect to see fixed income activity across the credit spectrum, including over $6 billion of corporate high yield debt. Our M&A pipeline is diverse and broadly based across countries and sectors."