The Asset Triple A Sustainable Finance Awards 2025 came to an exciting conclusion last night with the announcement of the major winners, Oscars-style, in a gala dinner held at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong.

Held simultaneously with The Asset Triple A Digital Finance Awards 2025, the event saw a gathering of about 300 issuers and borrowers, including sovereigns and several of the biggest corporates and financial institutions in the region, bankers, securities houses, brokerage houses and rating agencies who came together to celebrate the best and the brightest in commercial and investment banking, and digital finance during the past 12 months.

Leading the winners’ circle is BNP Paribas, voted as Best bank for sustainable finance. The bank was involved in several ESG-related transactions, acting as a joint ESG structuring adviser to Bank of China ( Frankfurt ) on its 2.5 billion offshore yuan ( US$345 million ) sustainability-linked, green and social ( SGS ) bond, whose proceeds were earmarked to finance or refinance sustainability-linked loans ( SLL ), green loans and social loans simultaneously.

BNP Paribas was also the sole sustainability structuring adviser on the US$1 billion green bond for CK Hutchison and was likewise the sole social adviser on the US$750 million social bond for Shriram Finance of India. It was also a joint social loan coordinator when Shriram Finance raised a social loan amounting to US$468 million equivalent.

( BNP Paribas receiving the award for the Best Sustainable Finance Adviser in the Asia Pacific region. )

MUFG Bank was a first-time winner as ESG bank of the year. The bank showed its strong commitment to sustainability by raising in early 2024 its 2030 target for sustainable finance to 100 trillion yen ( US$674 billion ) from 35 trillion yen. It also announced the creation of a new sustainability risk office to manage sustainability risks, such as climate change risks, across the group. The bank has been proactively engaging regulators and advancing collaboration through its involvement in initiatives such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership ( JETP ) in Indonesia and Vietnam.

MUFG Bank led several ESG-related deals, acting as lead social loan coordinator on the HDFC Credila Financial Services’ US$512 million social loan. It was the sustainability structuring adviser on the 10 billion baht ( US$297 million ) SLL for Thai Beverage and was a joint sustainability coordinator in the 30 billion yen sustainability-linked aircraft financing for Korean Air Lines. In other deals, MUFG Bank was the sustainability-linked and social loan structuring adviser on the HK$1 billion sustainability-linked and social term loan for Kerry Logistics Network and a joint SLL coordinator in the HK$1.8 billion ( US$231.6 million ) equivalent dual-currency SLL for DFI Retail Group.

( MUFG winning the Best ESG Bank in the Asia Pacific )

Market-defining deals

Citi retains the honour as Best corporate and institutional adviser as it flexed the strength of its franchise across equity, debt and M&A. Citi was involved in a number of market-defining transactions, acting as the sole global coordinator for the US$3,3 billion IPO for Hyundai India – the largest-ever IPO in Indian capital markets history.

It was the exclusive financial adviser to Lenovo in relation to its strategic collaboration with Alat, an investment vehicle for technology and electronics of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund. As part of the collaboration, Alat acquired a 12.09% stake in Lenovo through the issuance of US$2 billion convertible bonds designed to assist the Chinese technology firm in accelerating its global strategic transformation to capitalize on the growth momentum of information technology and business services in the MEA region.

In the fixed income space, Citi helped bring sovereign issuers into the bond market in 2024 with issuances from China’s Ministry of Finance, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Korea and the Republic of the Philippines. It also brought new issuers into the G3 bond market with the likes of Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, and Biocon Biologics, both from India.

( Team Citi winning the Best Corporate and Institutional Adviser in the Asia Pacific )

Another repeat winner is HSBC as Best G3 bond adviser. With its broad geographic footprint in the region, the bank captured key themes in the market, leading issuers into the sustainable finance space. It helped arrange green bonds for such issuers as BoCom Financial Leasing, China Merchants Bank ( Sydney ) and CK Hutchison, and social bonds for Shriram Finance, Industrial Bank of Korea and Korea Housing Corporation, among others.

Other notable deals by HSBC in 2024 included issuances from the Korea Development Bank, whose US$3 billion offering marked the Korean policy bank’s first step into SSA ( sovereign, supranational and agency )-style execution. It helped SM Investments Corporation of the Philippines to successfully return to the US dollar bond market after an absence of 10 years with a US$500 million deal. Among the inaugural offshore deals it helped bring into the market were those for Nan Shan Life Insurance of Taiwan, Krakatau Posco of Indonesia and Biocon Biologics.

( HSBC picking up the Best G3 Bond Adviser award in Asia Pacific. )

DBS is also a repeat winner as Best loan adviser. As a regional bank, DBS was able to grow its India franchise significantly with transactions for the likes of ONGC Videsh, State Bank of India, HDFC Credila and Avanse, a number of which were sole-led deals. It also made a significant stride in North Asia with deals for ByteDance, Syngenta Group, Winner Star Holdings, Hysan Development and Hong Kong Housing Society.

It was the sole provider of a bridge loan amounting to US$3.8 billion for WT Microelectronics/Morrihan International Corporation to help fund the largest M&A deal in Taiwan’s history. This was followed by a five-year NT$60 billion ( US$1.8 billion ) takeout financing, leading the transaction from end to end.

( The team at DBS picking up the Best Loan Adviser, Asia Pacific at The Asset Awards )

DBS is also committed to sustainable financing with SLL provided to Syngenta, SF Logistics Holdings, DFI Retail Group, Guvnor Singapore and City Developments. In Indonesia, it granted a green loan to PT IMG Sejahtera Langgeng, and social loans to Hong Kong Housing Society and Bank Rakyat Indonesia.

For the updated list of winners, please click here.

To view the official photo gallery from the event please go here.