In a year with little else to celebrate – apart from an impressively-active global sector across the course of the last calendar year in spite of coronavirus – it is good to report that submissions are pouring in for the IJGlobal Awards 2020.

To access the portal – which is live until 12 March (2021) – CLICK HERE…

Having opened the portal later than customary – normally it goes live in November – this helps as it reflects transactions that reached financial close in the 2020 calendar year… so no aspirational deals that may / or may not close are included.

There have been some slight changes to the categories, opening up a few new awards in the hope of giving the market something to celebrate in a grim time.

Some awards that are of particular note are:

• Credit Insurer – back by popular demand, we want to celebrate wrapping and that encompasses everything from monolines to ECAs
• Public Sector Awards – this is open to public bodies to submit or for organisations to submit on their behalf when particularly impressed by their activity (say rolling out pipelines of deals)
• ESG Coordinator – another one appearing by popular demand. This role is increasingly cropping up in our database and warrants recognition as it’s here to stay… and growing
• Investor (enters deal at or just after FC) – does what it says on the tin… it has to be on deals where equity comes in right at financial close (which happened in 2020) or just after, within a couple of weeks. A few offshore wind farms leap to mind!

The regular categories include:

• MLA
• Bond Arranger
• DFI
• Sponsor
• Grantor
• Financial Adviser
• Legal Adviser
• Technical Adviser
• Ratings Agency
• Corporate Trust
• Insurance Adviser
• Model Auditor
• Tax Adviser

As to categories, we have separated out a few to encourage greater uptake and allow us to slice and dice in a year when some of the more traditional infrastructure categories have not been so active. This is also designed to reflect market activity.

Two categories that will stand out are:

• Battery Storage
• Digital Infrastructure

Battery Storage speaks for itself, but the Digital Infrastructure one – which could be confused with Telecoms – has been rolled out to allow submitters the flexibility to draw the judging committees’ attention to innovative deals that might be a bit Core+ but are fascinating.

The other sectors that you would traditionally see are:

• Oil & Gas
• Power
• Renewables
• Transport
• Social Infra
• Mining
• Petrochemicals
• Telecoms
• Water
• Refinancing
• Export Finance

In the Refinancing category, we reserve the right to divide this across all sectors… as in refinancing in social infra, refi in renewables, refi in mining, etc.

We always do this and it reflects the number of submissions we receive which is a barometer for market activity.

A good example of this can be seen in the Renewables category. If we receive enough offshore wind farms in Europe, we will hive it off and judge onshore wind separately.

Another example would be that in the APAC region, we could separate out floating solar PV and give this an award, independent of more traditional solar farms that are ground-mounted.

Tips from the top table

When it comes to the ideal submission, it’s challenging to identify what will win over the independent judging committee of industry experts for numerous reasons. However, possibly most important is that their response to submissions depends on what comes in that year and who is on the judging team… which we try to vary up each year.

One thing that is worth bearing in mind when writing submissions is that just because you have space for 800 words… you don’t have to fill it.

Bullet points – use them. We all prefer to see things laid out in an easy-to-digest manner. Awards submissions are no different. Keep it tight as brevity is an art form.

Highlight what makes the individual role / transaction stand out from the crowd.

What have you as, say, a lender done that makes you different from all the other lenders active in the North American market? Have you worked on all the biggest deals? Did you close all the most impactful deals? Does this submission sell you as being a well-rounded lender in renewables/transport/O&G?

You won an award elsewhere – whoop-dee-doo. That will not influence the judges and has always been ignored.

You rate highly in a competitor title’s league tables – well that’s just rude. If you are going to use any league tables for an IJGlobal Award, please use our league tables!

The old quote stands true that “we learn from history that we do not learn from history”… so please do not gush on about your activity over previous years. You are judged on deal closes in 2020, not pipeline for 2021… but especially not successes back to before the global financial crisis.

But saving the best advice to last, if you're interested in submitting but do not have time right now to work on it… start the process and save your contact details. Sara will be delighted to chase you up until the 12 March deadline.

And again, for your convenience, you can access the submissions portal here...