Debt Awards for Excellence: The winners

Many of you will have spotted the name change. 

For the past two years, we have been rewarding excellence in infrastructure debt financing through our Banking Awards for Excellence. But given where the market is headed, we have decided that a rebrand was in order, one that acknowledges that, while banks are a tremendously important force in infrastructure financing, they are very much not alone in the space.

Take the financing of the Meerwind offshore wind farm, which won our Global Bond Financing of the Year award. Meerwind is the first fully institutional investor-led financing for a brownfield offshore wind project. But even in projects where private capital does not take the lead, it can often be found working alongside banks.

This heralds a material change that has been a long time coming: banks and private capital are now well on the road to a mutually beneficial division of labour, one that often sees banks arrange or take charge of the shorter-term portions of a project's financing, with institutional investors taking over for the long term. 

Still, that does not mean banks are second-best in our awards. In fact, the single biggest winner by individual nominations is a bank (Crédit Agricole CIB) with the second spot a tie between a bank (Société Générale CIB) and a private debt manager (BlackRock Infrastructure Debt Group). 

This year's edition marks our most successful outing, with 15 gongs awarded. CLICK HERE or on the cover to read our guide of 2015's most exciting deals.