Jefferies' secret sauce: Savours No. 1 in the ECM league table

Gets success recipe right by brokering $1.9-bn Adani-GQG deal

Jefferies has taken the lead in the investment banking league table for the Indian equity capital market (ECM).

Historically, the New York-headquartered investment bank has rarely featured in the top five. However, the $1.9-billion share sale in four Adani Group firms to US boutique investment firm GQG Partners has catapulted Jefferies to first place, according to Refinitiv, a market-data firm.

Jefferies was the sole investment banker for the stake sale by Adani Group promoters in Adani Enterprises (worth $663 million), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone ($642 million), Adani Green Energy ($341 million), and Adani Transmission ($231 million) in early-February.

The investment by GQG helped Adani Group restore some investor confidence, which had taken a severe walloping, following the allegations made by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research in a report released on January 24.

JM Financial and Morgan Stanley are second and third on the ECM league table, respectively.

During the first three months of calendar 2023, 80 equity deals worth a cumulative $5.3 billion got executed — up 42 per cent year-on-year.

As indicated by Refinitiv, the ECM underwriting fee stood at $50 million, up 15 per cent from a year ago — the highest first-quarter fee total since 2021.

Besides Adani, share sales in Sona BLW Precision Forgings (worth $600 million) and InterGlobe Aviation ($360 million) were the other large transactions.