Equity capital markets had a banner year in 2021 as the EMEA economy reopened after the pandemic and global stocks enjoyed a bullish run, aided by massive support from central banks.
Issuance got difficult in the second half of the year, due to a brutal rotation out of growth stocks, which left many of the year’s biggest IPOs in the region underwater. This led to a challenging environment to execute transactions in the fourth quarter. Many companies, including airlines, were able to use the economic recovery to raise capital, after fighting for survival at the onset of the pandemic.
Against this complex and at times challenging backdrop, GlobalCapital has chosen the winners of our 2021 Equity Capital Markets Awards.
As in previous years, we invited market participants to vote for the Outstanding Equity Capital Markets Deals of the Year, across all product categories, including IPOs, rights issues and convertible bonds. Investment banks voted for both the best deals they had worked on and those they had not.
The best non-bank market participants were also chosen by the poll.
Based on the poll results, GlobalCapital's editorial team has chosen 12 Outstanding ECM Deals of 2021. The most popular deal of all in pitches and our poll is our overall Equity Capital Markets Deal of the Year.
The IPO of Allfunds, the Spanish funds consolidator, was widely viewed as the standout IPO of last year, not only for its significant size at €2.16bn, but for the way the company and its global coordinators BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley put together an impressive roster of cornerstone investors and how well the deal traded in the aftermarket and the weeks and months following the listing, despite a turbulent market backdrop at the time in the wake of Deliveroo’s disastrous IPO earlier in April.
Allfunds has been crowned Equity Capital Markets Deal of the Year.
The cornerstone investors were BlackRock, Jupiter Asset Management, Mawer Investment Management, Janus Henderson Investors and Lazard Asset Management.
For the Awards for the best banks of the year, GlobalCapital uses a different system. The Awards are decided by our editorial team, on the basis of market knowledge and market research, including pitches from many of the leading banks in the market.
Goldman Sachs has won our award for Equity Capital Markets Bank of the Year. It had an outstanding 2021 across the board, seeing off all its main rivals to take the top spot in the EMEA ECM league table for the second year running.
Goldman achieved a market share of 8.2% in 2021, having done 142 transactions, according to Dealogic data.
This impressive total included leading roles on the IPO of Volvo Cars and Wise’s direct listing, both recognised as Outstanding Deals of the Year.
In the block trades market, Goldman dominated, so that it also won Block Trade Bank of the Year. The bank did more blocks last year than any other investment bank in EMEA, having run 70 accelerated bookbuilds, achieving a market share of 10.7%, well ahead of nearest competitor Morgan Stanley on 8.5%.
Goldman led a series of momentous block trades in the Greek banking sector, including Piraeus Bank’s €1.4bn capital increase in April last year. That trade was hugely popular and was seen by many in the market as an important milestone of Greece’s successful economic rehabilitation following the financial crisis. It was also named an Outstanding Deal.
Morgan Stanley has scooped the award for IPO Bank of the Year, continuing its sustained run as one of the go-to banks for new stockmarket listings in Europe.
The bank avoided last year’s highest profile IPO blow-ups, including Deliveroo, but won leading roles on many of the biggest flotations, including Volvo Cars, Vantage Towers, Wise, AutoStore and Acciona Energia. Morgan Stanley also led Allfunds as a global coordinator.
Equity-linked bonds proved a hugely competitive space in 2021, with a cadre of three banks all vying for the top award. The market in EMEA had its strongest year of issuance for many years as technology companies took advantage of the bull market to sell optionality.
At the same time, many issuers whose businesses had been severely damaged by the pandemic, such as the airlines, found that the convertible market was there for them in their time of need.
Last year also saw the proliferation of the asset class into new markets, such as the UK, where boards have traditionally shunned the dilutive instruments, and the Middle East, where there were several landmark transactions, including Adnoc’s giant exchangeable bond, the first deal of its kind in the Gulf region and one of the Outstanding Deals of the Year, and Turkish polyester company Sasa’s smaller convertible – the first ever on Borsa Istanbul.
HSBC has been awarded Equity-linked Bank of the Year for its role in expanding the product beyond its traditional frontiers into the UK and Middle East, as well as being on the top line of almost all the travel and leisure sector trades last year, including WH Smith, Jet2 and IAG, the parent of British Airways. HSBC also led Sasa alongside BNP Paribas as a global coordinator.
From a standing start, HSBC has transformed itself in recent years into a leading EMEA equity-linked franchise, finishing third in 2019, sixth in 2020, and in the top three again last year. The bank grew its market share to 10.1%, up from 5.9% in 2020.
HSBC has also led every single airline deal in EMEA since the start of the pandemic.
JP Morgan took the Award for ECM Bank of the Year for M&A Capital Raises.
Last year was a busy year for M&A in Europe, as companies pursued growth after the economic disruption caused by the pandemic.
Corporate tie-ups kept banks busy throughout the year. JP Morgan was consistently in the mix throughout, having underwritten many of the biggest M&A rights issues and other capital increases, including Vonovia’s giant €8bn rights issue to finance its takeover of Deutsche Wohnen in December - another Outstanding Deal of the Year.
For the full list of GlobalCapital’s 2021 ECM award winners, click here.
