HSBC named ‘best debt house’

British bank Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. was named “Best Debt House in the Philippines 2012” by Hong Kong-based financial magazine The Asset, winning the citation for the fifth consecutive year.

HSBC has been winning the award from the magazine as best arranger of debt deals in the Philippines since 2008, an award that the bank said was a “testament to the number of landmark transactions it has executed throughout the years.”

The foreign bank has pioneered some of the biggest corporate transactions in the Philippines, including San Miguel Brewery’s P38.8-billion retail bond issue and San Miguel Corp.’s P80-billion preferred shares issue, the largest capital market transaction in the country so far.

HSBC also arranged a number of successful deals for the Philippine government, launching its first Global Peso Note (GPN) and all of its three liability management exercises. These exercises have tempered foreign exchange risk for the country and pared down interest expense. The government’s most recent P30.8-billion, 10-year GPN and $1.2-billion tender offer also won Euromoney’s “Deals of the Year 2012.”

Last January, HSBC executed ICTSI’s $300-million, 10-year offshore bonds, JG Summit’s $750-million, 10-year offshore bonds and Petron Corp.’s $500-million perpetual bond issue.  Doris C. Dumlao