As Asia completed its re-opening, corporate access — the sell-side business of connecting institutional investors with companies — only swelled in demand.
Providers say the buyside’s appetite for on-the-ground access to corporates and policy makers across the region has never been higher amid a volatile year and reduced capital markets activity in the region.
But no two clients are alike, according to Jack Clein, Morgan Stanley’s Asia-Pacific head of equity distribution — and customizing the offering is key. “For us it’s about continuing to deliver three core elements to clients, with a heavy emphasis on customization,” he said. This includes generating access ideas that are relevant, topical, and aligned with client interests, as well as providing high quality, differentiated access to senior management, industry experts, and others with unique insights or perspectives. “Executing our programs with a focus on seamless logistics is what we believe also sets us apart,” Clein said.
And clients agree: For the third year in a row, investors have voted Morgan Stanley No. 1 in Institutional Investor’s 2023 ranking of Asia’s Top Corporate Access Providers.
To select the members for Institutional Investor’s 2023 Asia’s Top Corporate Access Providers, we invited participants in the 2023 Asia Research Team and 2023 Asia Executive Team Surveys to provide feedback on the firms that provided the best corporate access on a number of attributes.
From the 2023 Asia Research Team survey, representing the buy-side point of view, we received responses from 771 investors at 474 firms. This group rated sell-side firms on a scale from 1 to 5 across the following corporate access attributes: Team Quality, Field Trips, Conferences, Roadshows, Logistics, and Virtual Events.
Each vote was weighted by the voting firm’s Asia (ex-Japan) commission range and the rating awarded to create the rankings. Additionally, a second result was created using the assets under management, rather than commissions, as the weighting. The Corporate Access Leaders table, based on the buy-side voter’s survey, was calculated by adding together a firm’s overall corporate access scores within each attribute to produce a table of the top-ten firms.
From the 2023 Asia Executive Team Survey, representing the corporate point of view, 258 corporates voted for both sell-side firms and third-party providers. Voters ranked their top four firms in the following attributes: Virtual conferences, Feedback, Investor introductions or ad hoc requests, Nondeal road shows, and Site visits. Each attribute score was based on the place awarded to the firm. Scores were then aggregated to create the overall result.
The Corporate Access Leaders table, based on the corporates’ responses, tabulated each firm’s overall scores to produce a table comprised of the top-ten firms.
The names of those surveyed are kept confidential to ensure their continuing cooperation. Voters are required to meet eligibility requirements, and all ballots are subject to review by II’s Research Operations Group.