UBS has come a long way in the Philippines since it opened a rep office in Manila in 1996. It wasn’t until 2004 that UBS opened its full-fledged office in the Philippines, led by the veteran banker Lauro Baja, who is head of global capital markets for Asia Pacific and head of global banking for the Philippines.
Since then, UBS has completed more than 160 transactions in the Philippines with a total deal value of about $40 billion. That is quite a feat given the rising competition from local banking with global ambitions.
UBS maintained its leading market position in the Philippines by completing 17 transactions worth close to $11 billion in total between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. Eight of those deals were in debt capital markets, seven in equities and two in mergers and acquisitions.
They include the IPO by Monde Nissin in May 2021. The $1.1 billion listing was the biggest in Philippine history and the largest for a southeast Asian food and beverage company.
UBS brought in eight of the 11 cornerstone investors in the deal, equivalent to 81% of the cornerstone allocation.
