FinanceAsia magazine, one of the region's leading financial publications, named Morgan Stanley the Best M&A House in Asia for 2008. For its awards this year - which cover the Asia region, excluding Japan, Australia and New Zealand - the magazine also named Morgan Stanley as the Best Mid-Cap Equity House. The Firm won the most deal awards - seven - across M&A advisory and capital markets.

In a year that saw lower capital-markets issuance, competition for the M&A House award was especially intense. In the results write-up, FinanceAsia acknowledged that Morgan Stanley was one of only two banks "that consistently stood out for their depth and breadth of the M&A business this year." 

Landmark transactions include:

advising Temasek on its divestment of three power plants in Singapore

acting as sole defense adviser to Midwest Steel in its eventual sale to China's Sinosteel, one of the most highly-fought takeover battles in Asia this year

advising on the sale of Jaguar Land Rover to India's Tata Group

advising on the sale of CJ Investment & Securities in Korea to Hyundai Mipo Dockyard 

advising KKR on its acquisition of Unisteel in Singapore

advising CITIC on its privatization of CIFH

The magazine was also impressed by the number of positive mentions the Firm received from peers who saw Morgan Stanley as the major competitor in pitch situations and the one against which they benchmarked their own M&A franchises.

Below is the full list of Morgan Stanley's awards from FinanceAsia for 2008:

Best M&A House

Best Mid-Cap Equity House

Deal of the Year and Best M&A Deal - Sinosteel acquisition of Midwest

Best Private Equity Buyout and Best Leveraged Financing - KKR acquisition of Unisteel

Best Mid-Cap Equity Deal - China Shanshui Cement IPO

Best Investment Grade Bond - Hong Kong & China Gas

Best High Yield Bond - Vedanta

Best Foreign Investment Bank in Taiwan