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SCMP Reporter

Swiss investment bank rated best in the region for second straight year while CLSA takes second

Swiss investment bank UBS topped the annual brokers poll conducted by Asiamoney, a monthly finance magazine, for the second year in a row, edging out  France's CLSA, which took second, in Asia excluding Japan.

Jonathan Anderson, a China economist at UBS, also walked away with top honours in mainland macroeconomic research.

'We're delighted - both Michael Chan, who runs the Asian sales team, and I - to win again and think it is a reflection of how our clients respect out strength and depth across sales and research,' said Nicholas Pink, the head of Asian research at UBS.

Asiamoney, which conducted the peer-based survey for the 17th consecutive year, polled 1,600  investors at about 1,000 different institutions with  about US$1.12 trillion invested in Asian equities.

CLSA withdrew from last year's poll under a cloud after internal e-mails surfaced that encouraged employees to cheat. Asiamoney discovered three poll forms sent in from CLSA filled out in the same handwriting.

The bank, the Asian investment banking arm of Credit Agricole, won the competition in 2004. Agricole is the second-largest bank in France by market value.

'This poll is not, in any way, one in which we were actively involved. However, we appreciate that clients wish to recognise us publicly for our service,' said a CLSA spokesperson.

UBS has its eyes on the mainland  where it hopes to leverage the 1.75 billion yuan  it paid for a 20 per cent stake in Beijing Securities earlier this year. The  brokerage firm, to be renamed UBS Securities, will receive a licence to underwrite and trade stocks and bonds by the end of the year, sources said.

'We've got some big investment plans to grow our coverage aggressively in the China market, particularly in A shares,' said Mr Pink.

JP Morgan moved up one place from last year to third  while Goldman Sachs and Citigroup rounded out the top five, Asiamoney said.

China International Capital Corp, which is 34 per cent owned by US investment bank Morgan Stanley, won top honours for mainland equity research and sales this year.

CICC also dominates mainland securities underwriting. The Beijing-based bank took 30 per cent of the market in the first eight months of this year, ahead of Citic Securities, China's largest listed brokerage firm, which  grabbed 21 per cent.

In Hong Kong, SBI E2-Capital was crowned as top local brokerage in equity research and sales, Asiamoney said.

UBS took top honours again in the Australian market, beating out local rival Macquarie. Deutsche Bank placed third.

In Japan, Nomura Holdings, the country's largest securities firm,  ranked first followed by local rival Daiwa Securities, the second-largest brokerage.



UBS tops brokers poll in Asia