At the January 8 International Finance Review 2006 Awards ceremony, Morgan Stanley was recognized as Latin America Bond House and North America Securitization House of the Year. In addition, several Morgan Stanley-led deals were recognized as well, including:

• European Securitization for J. Sainsbury plc's €2.07bn (US$2.67bn) refinancing
• CEEMEA Equity Issue for Rosneft's US$10.7bn IPO
• European High-Yield Bond for NXP's €4.3bn ($5.6bn) issue
• Sterling Bond for Wellcome Trust's £550mn ($1bn) offering
• U.S. Equity Issue for NYSE's $1.77bn follow-on
• U.S. Structured Equity Issue for Amgen's $5bn convertible
• Yen Bond for Nuclear Energy Holdings' ¥129bn ($1bn) two-tranche offering

Finishing first in the LatAm league tables coupled with lead roles in complex, trend-setting transactions distinguished the LatAm Debt Capital Markets Team. "Given the relatively small size of the Morgan Stanley's LatAm team, the bank did not set out to be all things to all people, but rather focused on value-added transactions that paid off and did not waste time on more conventional plain vanilla deals to generate volume," the editors explained.

Many factors drove Morgan Stanley's securitization success in 2006. IFR cited the team's ability to partner with clients on strategic transactions and deliver innovative solutions, noting "The firm was able to listen to the needs of principals and create finely tailored structured financing instruments to transfer risk, provide suitable rates of return and bring outstanding execution."

Clients strongly supported the Firm's selection as North America Securitization House of the Year, citing the Firm's seamlessly delivery of both agented and principal solutions to create client opportunities. Of note, one client said Morgan Stanley had "over-delivered" on its cutting-edge TimberStar transaction, which financed the acquisition of International Paper's timber portfolio.