The Bond Awards — the result, as always, of a vote by market participants — crowned BP as Most Impressive Corporate Borrower and Bank of America as Most Impressive Bank for Corporate Bonds.
BNP Paribas was Most Impressive Corporate Bond House in Euros, while BofA took the dollar prize and Barclays sterling. Mizuho won Coming Force in Corporate Bonds.
Among issuers, BP, which carried off some very large and successful funding exercises in 2020, also won Most Impressive Corporate Funding Team, while Gary Admans, BP’s head of liquidity and capital markets, was named the best funding official.
Iberdrola, runner-up for the top borrower Award, won best hybrid issuer and Most Impressive Corporate Green/SRI Bond Issuer.
Novartis, one of the first few companies to follow Enel into the sustainability-linked bond market, beat the product’s inventor to the Award for that asset class.
Citigroup, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan also won Awards for their performance in aspects of the corporate bond market.
This year, for the first time, GlobalCapital’s Lifetime Achievement Awards celebrated two people from the corporate bond market — Bernd Bode from Volkswagen Financial Services and Peter Zirwes from Daimler (citation is below).
Because of the Covid disruption last year, the 2021 Awards cover the period July 2020 to March 2021.
We thank everyone who voted in our poll and congratulate all the winners and nominees.
We invite you to watch our online Awards Ceremony, including the Lifetime Achievement Awards, here.
A list of the corporate results is below, and a full list of all the Awards is here.
GlobalCapital Lifetime Achievement Awards
Bernd Bode
Volkswagen Financial Services
Peter Zirwes
Daimler
| Lifetime Achievement Awards citation
This year we’re giving two Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the capital markets, and by an odd coincidence they’re very well matched. Two executives who have overseen funding for two of Europe’s leading companies are both retiring this summer, at the end of long and distinguished careers. The first is Bernd Bode, who until he retired in May was head of group treasury and investor relations at Volkswagen Financial Services. The Volkswagen Group is Europe’s biggest corporate borrower — issuing more debt than many countries — and a large part is for its financial services arm. Bernd ran VWFS’s treasury operation ever since it was established separately from the industrial treasury in 2002. But even before that in the 1990s he was involved in bringing together diverse funding activities around the world for VW Bank. While this borrowing is now centrally managed, it is extremely varied, taking in bonds, CP and ABS in 18 currencies. Our second award winner is Peter Zirwes, who will step down in August as head of corporate finance at Daimler — the second biggest corporate issuer. Daimler has given Peter several difficult postings over the years. Daimler was a shareholder of EADS, the aerospace company, and Peter ran its complex customer finance business for several years when the company was created. He was on the integration team when Daimler bought Chrysler, and spent four years in the US as liaison between the finance teams in Stuttgart and Michigan. Although it was a happy time, he was one of those who ultimately had to tell the board that the merger was not working out. Since returning to Germany, Peter has overseen a tripling of Daimler’s funding requirement. For each of their companies, Bernd and Peter have built up a modern, professional treasury operation of worldwide scope, to finance a wide variety of financial assets efficiently and with low risk. Their careers span the development of corporate bonds and ABS in Europe from small corners of the market to the powerhouses they are today. Both Bernd and Peter have made invaluable contributions to that development, by steering two of the market’s most important borrowers calmly and adeptly, in a way that has always retained the confidence of the market, even during some sharp crises. Both are highly praised by bankers who have worked with them over the years, not just for the quality of their work, but for being, as one DCM banker put it: “without making any concessions on their professionalism, extremely pleasant people to deal with — and I think it matters”. See our interview with Bernd and Peter at the end of the Awards Ceremony here. |
Corporate Bonds
CORPORATE BOND INVESTMENT BANK AWARDS
Most Impressive Bank for Corporate Bonds
Bank of America
2 BNP Paribas
3 JP Morgan
Coming Force in Corporate Bonds
Mizuho
2= SMBC Nikko, Standard Chartered
Most Impressive Corporate Bond House in Euros
BNP Paribas
2 Société Générale
3= Deutsche Bank, UniCredit
Most Impressive Corporate Bond House in Dollars
Bank of America
2 JP Morgan
3 Citigroup
Most Impressive Corporate Bond House in Sterling
Barclays
2 HSBC
3 NatWest Markets
Most Impressive Bank for Corporate Green/SRI Capital Markets
BNP Paribas
2 JP Morgan
3 Crédit Agricole
Most Impressive Investment Bank for Sustainability-Linked Finance
Crédit Agricole
2= Goldman Sachs, ING, Standard Chartered
Most Impressive Bank for Corporate Swaps and Other Derivatives
Barclays
2 Citigroup
3= BNP Paribas, Société Générale
Most Impressive Bank for Corporate Hybrid Capital
Citigroup
2 Bank of America
3 Standard Chartered
Most Impressive Bank for Corporate Liability Management
Deutsche Bank
2 Bank of America
3 Barclays
Most Impressive Corporate Coverage Team
BNP Paribas
2 JP Morgan
3= Deutsche Bank, HSBC
Most Impressive Syndicate Team for Corporate Bonds
JP Morgan
2 Bank of America
3= BNP Paribas, Citigroup
CORPORATE BOND INVESTMENT BANKER AWARD
Most Impressive Corporate Bond Origination Banker
Mark Kitchen, Bank of America
CORPORATE BORROWER AWARDS
Most Impressive Corporate Borrower
BP
2 Iberdrola
3 Bayer
Most Impressive Non-European Corporate Borrower in European Currencies
Verizon Communications
2 Medtronic
3 Coca-Cola
Most Innovative Corporate Borrower
Verbund
2 Chanel
3 Enel
Most Impressive Corporate Funding Comeback after Covid-19 Pandemic
Heathrow, Ryanair (joint winners)
2 Easyjet
3 Lufthansa
Most Impressive Corporate Hybrid Capital Issuer
Iberdrola
2 Eni
3 Total
Most Impressive Debut Corporate Bond Issuer
Traton
2 Vantage Towers
3 Inwit
Most Impressive Corporate Green/SRI Bond Issuer
Iberdrola
2 Ørsted
3 Daimler
Most Impressive Sustainability-Linked Bond Issuer
Novartis
2 Enel
3 Ahold Delhaize
Most Impressive Corporate MTN Issuer
Volkswagen
2 National Grid
3 Toyota
Most Impressive Corporate Funding Team
BP
2 Total
3 BMW
CORPORATE FUNDING OFFICIAL AWARD
Most Impressive Corporate Funding Official
Gary Admans, BP
2 Alessandro Canta, Enel
3= Jason Bristow, Medtronic; Patrick Halpin, BP; Jamie Stead, Vodafone
CORPORATE BOND AWARDS FOR OTHER MARKET PARTICIPANTS
Best Debt Advisory Firm for Corporate Bonds
Rothschild
2 Ernst & Young
3 Société Générale
Most Influential Investor in Corporate Bonds
BlackRock
2 APG
3 Pimco
Best Rating Agency for Corporate Bonds
Moody’s
2 S&P Global
3 Fitch Ratings
Best Law Firm for Corporate Bonds
Linklaters
2 Allen & Overy
3 Clifford Chance