Institutional Investor magazine announced its Deals of the Year Awards for 2003 in the publication's January edition. In the annual ceremony, Morgan Stanley-advised deals won a total of six awards.

The article touting the awards summed up the 2003 economic environment: “In 2003 stocks rose for the first time in this infant century, and by midyear the rally had reawakened the long-dormant equity underwriting and M&A markets as investors grew confident enough to buy new stock issues again. Corporate executives, emboldened by a recovering economy and renewed vigor in their own share prices sought out acquisitions to grow their companies.”

II editors and writers evaluated deals of 2003 for noteworthiness, complexity, innovation and size to determine the winners.

M&A
Three of the twelve M&A Deals of the Year listed involved Morgan Stanley clients:

• Alcan's successful €5.73bn bid for Pechiney
• US$2.6bn sale of Warner Music Group
• FleetBoston Financial's $47bn merger with Bank of America

Capital Markets
Two of the nine corporate financing awards went to Firm-related deals:

• Formfactor's $96.6m IPO
• General Motors Corp.'s $17.9bn, six tranche bond issue

"FormFactor emboldened other companies and bankers," Colin Stewart, Managing Director in Global Capital markets, told Institutional Investor .  "In 2004 we'll see for the first time a meaningful increase in the number of tech companies going public."

Real Estate
In real estate, Institutional Investor cited John Hancock Financial Services' sale and leaseback deal on its corporate headquarters.