Best bank
Banco Totta e Açores Best debt house
Deutsche Bank
Best equities house
Banco Espírito Santo
Best M&A house
Banco Espírito Santo
Best local partner
Banco Finantia
A recession in Portugal has made business difficult for all the country?s banking groups, but they have all adapted to new business conditions and demonstrated their resilience.
Of the big banks, Totta has shown the best efficiency, despite being much smaller than some of its rivals. It reported a return on equity of 18.9% in 2003. A good deal of this comes from the streamlining and efficiency effort that the bank undertook about two years ago. This has enabled it to grow without needing to raise capital or rebrand, as the newly named Millennium BCP has done. The firm has kept costs and NPLs low. Growth areas for the next 12 months are likely to be credit cards, mortgages and investment funds.
The award for best debt house is a tough call between Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro, both of which enjoyed a highly successful year in the bond market. Citigroup also deserves praise for its role as the sole arranger and sole bookrunner in Explorer ? Portugal?s largest ever public ABS deal. The award goes to Deutsche Bank because, aside from the very small lead in market share that it has over ABN Amro, it handled one-third more deals over the past 12 month. The Dutch bank?s strength lies largely in asset-backed securities.
It was a quiet year in equity capital markets, with three issuers coming to market. Of those, the biggest was the Grupo Media Capital IPO, led by CSFB. In other deals, local banks dominated. Publishing company Impresa did a rights issue with BPI. Gescartao did an IPO through BES, Caixa and BCPI. But only BES was in that and the Grupo Media Capital deal, securing it the best equities house award this year.
This time next year, UBS will be the bank to beat in the M&A category. For now, the large EDP restructuring, in which it is the joint adviser, is yet to complete. One of UBS?s deals that did complete in the period under consideration was the purchase of an outstanding stake in Sociedade Central de Cervejas ? a brewer advised by BES ? by Scottish & Newcastle. For BES?s work in advising the target in that deal, plus the dominant role it played in many other local transactions, it wins the award. It handled a huge number of deals, including some for the best-known corporates, such as Telesp Celular, Bradesc, and Portugal Telecom.
Banco Finantia, the winner of the best local partner award, might not appear particularly high up in the main league tables, but that masks the important role it plays in local M&A, and even in some small euro-denominated bond issues for Brazilian banks. The firm specializes in cross-border transactions involving clients in Spain and Brazil.
