Business

Saturday June 27, 2009

CIMB takes centrestage at RAM League Awards


KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Investment Bank Bhd netted the top Lead Manager Award in the Number of Deals categories for both conventional and Islamic bonds at the 2009 RAM League Awards held here last night.

The bank also grabbed first place in the category of Issue Value (Islamic) and special merit awards in the Malaysia’s Top Lead Manager 2008 categories for both the corporate sukuk and corporate bond markets.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Bhd, RHB Investment Bank Bhd and Standard Chartered Bank Bhd walked away with the BluePrint Award for Outstanding Deal of the Year. This was for their collaboration with Gulf Investment Corp in issuing RM1bil of fixed-rate bonds.

This is the sixth year of the annual RAM League Awards organised by credit rating agency RAM Ratings. The awards presented yesterday honoured the industry’s innovative thinkers and forerunners for their performance in the bond market in 2008. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin attended the event.

RAM Holdings Bhd chairman Tan Sri Siti Norma Yaakob said the awards reflected the growth of the domestic debt capital market and highlighted industry forerunners.

“It also reinforces RAM’s position as an advocate of continuous market education and the transcending of innovative barriers,” she said during the prize presentation ceremony.

RAM Rating Services Bhd chief executive officer Liza Mohd Noor said the awards celebrated the achievements of financial institutions and Malaysian corporates in raising the bar and advancing the domestic bond market.

“They have now become a challenge to market participants, symbolising the laudable accomplishment of excellence and ingenuity,” she added.

AmInvestment Bank Bhd came in second in the Lead Manager Awards’ Number of Deals category while Maybank Investment Bank Bhd and RHB Investment Bank Bhd were joint third.

Maybank Investment Bank took first place in Issue Value for conventional bonds, followed by CIMB Investment Bank and RHB Investment Bank.

RHB Investment Bank was also given the Special League Achievement Award 2008. Thirty-two awards in 12 categories were handed out under Lead Manager Awards and Awards of Distinction.

The Lead Manager Awards recognised the respective institutions’ leading positions in RAM’s league table while the latter was accorded to distinctive, groundbreaking bond deals, in recognition of the entities’ innovative and progressive outlook.

In a separate development, CIMB Group announced in a statement yesterday that it won all three Malaysia awards in this year’s Asiamoney Best Bank awards, making it the only bank in Asia to sweep all three country awards (Best Domestic Bank, Best Domestic Equity House and Best Domestic Debt House).

CIMB Group chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak said this was the first time it won the Best Domestic Bank award and obtained a clean sweep.

“This is recognition of the success of our three-year transformation of CIMB Bank, achieved without compromising our leadership in the capital markets arena,” he said.

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