15 July 2014
Barclays Africa named ‘Best Investment Bank’ and ‘Best M&A House in Africa’ at Prestigious 2014 Euromoney Awards
Group Also awarded ‘Best Bank In Ghana’
Barclays Africa has been named “Best Investment Bank in Africa” and “Best M&A House in Africa” by the prestigious global news publication Euromoney. The awards ceremony, held at London’s Natural History Museum on Thursday, 10 July, added to a series of recent accolades confirming Barclays Africa as the leading adviser on debt access and business acquisition on the continent.
The Euromoney Awards for Excellence are given each year to honour those institutions that have brought the highest levels of service, innovation and expertise to their customers and industries. The awards are widely considered the most prestigious recognition in the financial services industry.
The award for ‘Best Bank in Ghana’ follows recent recognition as ‘Best Bank in Cash Management’ by Euromoney in 2010 and ‘Best Bank in Ghana’ by The Banker in 2012.
“Less than one year after establishing Barclays Africa, these awards symbolise an important milestone in our journey to achieve our ambition becoming the ‘Go-To’ bank in Africa,” said Maria Ramos, Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Africa Group. “This recognition is a testament to the powerful combination of deep local presence and global expertise that only Barclays can provide on the African continent.”
High-profile transactions
Barclays Africa has been involved in some of the most high-profile transactions on the African continent in the past 12 months. These include acting as joint bookrunner on Steinhoff International’s Є465m convertible bond, sole bookrunner on Metair’s ZAR1.5bn capital increase and sole bookrunner on the ZAR321m accelerated placing of Gold Fields’ residual stake in Northam Platinum. Barclays’ ECM team also acted as joint adviser and sole sponsor on Glencore’s inward listing on the JSE – the largest listing on the JSE in over ten years.
“We are honoured to be recognised as the best investment bank in Africa and best M&A house in Africa. This recognition confirms our leadership position as Africa’s premier M&A, equity, debt, ratings, project finance, risk solutions and foreign exchange adviser,” said Stephen van Coller, Chief Executive Officer of the Corporate and Investment Banking division of Barclays Africa. “You can expect to see continued innovation and investment in this business over the coming years as we extend our product offering into new markets across Africa.”
He believes that Barclays Africa’s unique product capability across financing, risk management advisory, combined with its global integrated investment banking platform, delivers world-class investment banking services to its clients across Africa and played a role in winning the award.
“Our clients are the visionaries, and we are proud that as one of only a few banks that can provide debt financing locally and internationally, delivering multi-product, bespoke financing and advisory solutions that we can help our clients realise their ambitions,” said Philip Lindop, head of Investment Banking at Barclays Africa.
Making strides
Barclays Ghana Managing Director Patience Akyianu, who was in attendance to receive the award, said the recognition was testimony of the strides the bank is making towards the goal of becoming the bank of choice by delivering better value banking to the Ghana market.
“This Euromoney Award for Excellence recognises our enhanced value proposition to our customers through the introduction of innovative products and services that provide easy banking solutions,” said Ms Akyianu.
Barclays Ghana has operated in Ghana for over 95 years and has an extensive retail and corporate banking network across the country; comprising 58 branches, five Agencies, 10 Premier Life Centres, two Premier Suites and eight Local Business Centres. Barclays also has 137 ATMs spread across the country.
Barclays Ghana continues to benefit from investments made in previous years, which has seen the bank post steady growth since 2012. The bank’s impressive performance is underpinned by numerous initiatives, including significant enhancement of customer service experience as well as improved operational efficiencies and control environment.