Macquarie Capital took home IJInvestor’s Financial Adviser of the Year Award in APAC with judges lauding it as the natural winner and clear market leader in the region.  

In the judging period, Macquarie advised on A$20.3 billion ($13.3bn) across 16 transactions in the region. Including advising on: 

• Lightsource bp’s proposed A$813 million sale of Australian solar farm and battery storage projects to Beijing Energy International Holding Co (BJEI)
• Rio Tinto’s acquisition of about 2.2 GW of renewable electricity via power purchase agreements (PPAs) from wind and solar generation assets in Queensland. The transaction involved Australia’s largest renewable PPA 

The independent judging panel complimented Macquarie’s ability to navigate the ever expanding definition of infrastructure by identifying and creating new investment opportunities that meet the challenges of tomorrow. 

One judge said: “Macquarie Capital is a clear market leader in APAC and its impressive track record speaks for itself. Advising on transactions in sectors with sensitive national security considerations, particularly in Australia, demonstrates a willingness to tackle difficult scenarios, demonstrating innovation.” 

Judges were particularly impressed with Kinetic transaction, which saw Macquarie advise the transit services operator on the refinancing of its senior debt facilities across its ANZ operations. This was the first infrastructure debt repositioning of scale for a private bus company in ANZ. By entering into the about A$1.6 billion facilities, Kinetic is better positioned to fund its strong growth pipeline and meet its ambitious decarbonisation goals. This included decommissioning diesel buses and replacing them with zero emission buses within the ANZ transport network and launching an all-electric bus depot. 

Macquarie also acted as financial adviser to J-Power on its acquisition and take-private of Genex Power. A deal that has been commemorated several times this year. Following the deal, J-Power has a platform to build out their Australian electricity market presence with 400MW of operating and late-stage construction projects, and ownership of a development pipeline of generation and storage projects in excess of 2.3GW.