Air NZ saving scheme awarded at Infinz

AUCKLAND: A historic $1.2 billion deal to keep Air New Zealand afloat took home the title of equity market transaction of the year, at the 2023 Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand (Infinz) awards in Auckland.

The renounceable rights offer was the thirdlargest deal to ever be offered to New Zealand investors, worth 200% of the airline’s total issued capital. It was led and underwritten by three investment banks — UBS, Citigroup and Forsyth Barr.

‘‘The winning capital raise was the largest and most significant equity capital market transaction by value in 2022,’’ the awards judges wrote in their comments.

‘‘The longawaited capital restructure of Air New Zealand provided the airline with the financial stability to move into a recovery phase post the disruption of Covid19.’’

Rival investment bank Jarden was a big winner on the night too, collecting three awards, including for its ‘‘well received’’ merger of Tourism Holdings and Apollo Tourism and Leisure, and its series B equity raise and subordinated debt financing for the earlystage solar power company Lodestone Energy.

The emergence of environmental, social and governance (ESG) values in capital markets was a clear factor across the winners, with submitters this year required to assess how their activities had improved outcomes for the environment and society.

The issuing of $3 billion worth of green bonds by NZ Debt Management was awarded the debt market issue of the year, which was led and structured by ANZ, BNZ, Westpac, Deutsche Bank and UBS.

ASB Bank was awarded the corporate ESG award for ‘‘truly living and breathing corporate

ESG, diversity and inclusion across the business’’.

Otago University students were awarded the research report of the year for revealing that Australasian ESG funds had similar carbon intensity to nonESG funds.

‘‘The paper contributes to the debate about whether investors are being well informed about the true nature of the ESG funds and suggests that a considerable amount of ‘greenwashing’ is occurring in order to attract investors.’’

For the second year running, Milford Asset Management won the diversified growth fund manager of the year, standing out for its relative performance in a negative year for fund managers.

Leadership awards went to Dean Anderson, whose Kernel KiwiSaver fund launched the first global ESG fund aligned to the Paris Agreement, and longstanding Fisher and Paykel Healthcare chief executive Lewis Gradon, who was appointed in 2016. —