Best bank
Banco Comercial Português
Best debt house
BCP Investimento
Best equity house
BCP Investimento
Best M&A house
Finantia
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Jorge Jardim Gonçalves |
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Banco Comercial Português is the dominant private bank in Portugal, with leading market shares in all banking segments. Its largest potential rival is the state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos, which is now modernizing fast and improving its efficiency, though no date has yet been set for a privatization. Its most significant foreign competitor is Banco Totta&Açores – the combination of Totta, Crédito Predial Português and the commercial and investment banking businesses of Banco Santander. As elsewhere, local firms – whose reason for existence is undermined by regionalization and their clients’ increasingly sectoral view – are threatened by aggressive, sophisticated, efficient and acquisitive foreigners. Totta’s performance in retail, wholesale and investment banking makes it one of the best performers in the sector this year.
That said, it will need another big buy to unseat the government-backed big banks.
BCP’s senior management, led by chairman Jorge Jardim Gonçalves, is the best regarded in Portugal having driven the bank from a start-up 15 years ago to become the country’s leading financial services firm. At a time when bank chairmen across the world are desperate to cross-sell more products to their customers, struggling to sell one more insurance policy or savings vehicle to depositors, BCP sells on average 3.5 products to each customer.
Within Portugal, the bank has been pre-occupied in the past 12 months with absorbing two large acquisitions, Banco Pinto&Sotto Mayor and Banco Mello, which came about as a result of the break up of the Antonio Champalimaud banking empire. It has a strong track record in managing the information technology aspects of new acquisitions and has integrated well, even while maintaining separate brands.
Outside Portugal the bank’s senior management is wondering whether its moderate – by European standards – e11 billion market capitalization will permit it to play a leading role in cross-border consolidation. The bank has invested in Greece and Poland and has taken a stake in Spain’s Banco Sabadell which may come to something or nothing. It has recently negotiated a tie-up with the Eureko group of insurance companies and through this with the fund manager Foreign&Colonial. Its strategy seems to be to concentrate on asset gathering.
The Bank’s newly reorganized investment banking arm, BCP Investimento, is also a powerful force in Portuguese securities markets and corporate finance. Though it recently abandoned its research joint venture with Flemings its Portuguese coverage is still highly regarded. Moreover its brokerage unit, BCP Dealer, enjoys an extraordinary 31% market share in trading of Portuguese stocks.
This trading and distribution strength underpins its primary market business. Though large deals have been few and far between in recent months, BCP has maintained a strong share of big international transactions and smaller, local offerings. It acted as a global coordinator on the fourth sales of shares in Electricidade de Portugal which raised e1.78 billion and in which BCP Investimento generated a large portion of Portuguese retail demand. It has recently been mandated a joint global co-ordinator on the rights offers for Portucel, and Sonae. It has already been appointed global coordinator of the next sell of shares of Brisa by the Portuguese state.
It is also a leading debt arranger in the bank and capital markets. It has participated in all the infrastructure project financing deals in Portugal and is the clear leader in the relatively small domestic debt capital market where it is the most active commercial paper dealer and domestic bond lead manger. It is also the leading Portuguese bank in securitization, having been a joint lead manager of the breakthrough Tagus collateralized bond obligation.
Finantia’s strength in mergers and acquisitions has been helped by its strong line to Latin America. It advised Unibanco on the acquisition of Banco Bandeirantes in Brazil from Caixa. And it advised Portuguese pulp and paper company Portucel on the acquisition of a stake in Soporcel.
