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Deals of the Year Awards 2008
The Deals of the Year Awards are organised by The Treasurer, the official magazine of the ACT.
In 2008 the Deals of the Year Awards were proudly supported by:
The Deals of the Year Awards are the only treasury awards where the winners are judged by fellow practitioners. They celebrate the achievements of the corporate treasurer in successfully accessing the debt and equity markets on behalf of their company. All types of deal are considered and judged on the basis of demonstrating innovation and excellence in treasury, rather than on the size of the deal. In addition, the Treasury Team of the Year Awards recognises the all round contributions of treasury teams to business success.
Winners of the Deals of the Year 2008
Overall winner: InBev (now Anheuser-Busch InBev)
An outstanding transaction in the European loans category for deal sizes over £750m and a worthy overall winner of our Deals of the Year awards, Inbev pulled off a mega financing deal to go with a mega takeover.
Bonds: FirstGroup
Investment-grade bonds are seen as the blue riband event of the deals of the year, and this year’s winner helps to maintain that reputation. A rare bbb-corporate issue in 2008, Firstgroup’s deal took perfect advantage of a limited window of opportunity.
Corporate Finance: Fresenius
In the last major equity-linked transaction to make it away successfully last year, healthcare company Fresenius saw a window of opportunity in the capital markets and took it with aplomb.
Liability Management: BAA
The objective of this eye-catching deal was to repay £4.5bn of senior acquisition facilities and refinance the company’s assets through a sale of non-core assets, creating a stable rated debt platform for the funding of BAA’s airports.
Loans: UK and Continental Mid-Market (deal size < £750m): Invensys
In the UK and Continental mid-market sector, the Invensys loan is a key example of strong investor demand for an international corporate with improving credit fundamentals and significant ancillary opportunities for its bank group.
Loans: UK Larger Corporates (deal size > £750m): The Co-operative Group
A bold financing deal was needed to accompany a bold takeover bid by the UK’s largest mutual retailer. The £1.25bn term loan facility was a worthy winner in the loans for UK larger corporates for deal size over £750m.
Loans: Continental European Corporates (deal size > £750m): InBev (now Anheuser-Busch InBev)
European brewer InBev acquired its US rival Anheuser-Busch in an audacious hostile bid totalling \$52bn. A key plank in the success of the takeover was the \$45bn syndicated senior facilities and \$9.8bn subordinated equity bridge facilities arranged by InBev.
Treasury Team of the Year (market cap above £2bn): Imperial Tobacco Group
A small but highly flexible team has shown how a treasury can successfully juggle normal operations with a major acquisition, a huge rights issue and a large bond issue.
Treasury Team of the Year (market cap below £2bn): Invensys
This versatile treasury team, already winners in the mid-market loans category, carefully finessed a series of refinancing deals, undertook a set of complicated disposals, and successfully restructured itself.
Deals of the Year awards dinner 2008 Picture Gallery
Judging process
The Deals of the Year Awards Panel comprises a group of experienced market practitioners from across the spectrum of treasury, risk and corporate finance. The Panel give full consideration to all nominated deals and use the criteria noted below to select the winners of each category, plus an overall winner. It also draw up the shortlist for the Corporate Treasury Team of the Year.
Finding the winners
Deals of the year panellist Graham Wood provides a glimpse into the judging process which produced the winners and highly commended in this year’s deals of the year.
Nominations for Deals of the Year 2009
We are keen to hear from treasurers or bankers throughout the year who already have a deal they would like to nominate for Deals of the Year 2009. Do you have details of an exceptional deal you feel deserves recognition? Or have you worked alongside a treasury team worthy of note? To nominate a deal or team send a brief outline to Peter Matza on pmatza@treasurers.org.
Winners from previous Deals of the Year Awards
Review the results and more from the Deals of the Year Awards 2007
