Awards for Excellence 2009: Italy

Best Bank: Intesa Sanpaolo Best Investment Bank: JPMorgan

Intesa Sanpaolo is among the top banking groups in the eurozone ranked by market capitalization and the clear leader in Italy in all business areas, across retail, corporate and wealth management. Thanks to a domestic network of 5,509 branches throughout the country, with market shares above 15% in most Italian regions, the group offers its services to about 11.2 million Italian customers. It has a leading share of loans and deposits.

The bank has managed to trade profitably through the financial crisis and economic downturn thus far. Intesa Sanpaolo can claim sound funding and liquidity, and higher coverage of non-performing loans than many of its domestic rivals. It is also a less complex beast than many Italian banks. Although it has diversified into central and eastern Europe, domestic depositors, investors and regulators can take comfort that loans to CEE borrowers account for no more than 7% of its total loan exposures.

At home, the bank reported in May a slowing flow of domestic NPLs in the first quarter of this year compared with the last quarter of 2008.

JPMorgan advised on some $19 billion equivalent of M&A and corporate finance transactions in Italy over the past 12 months. Prominent among these, it advised Enel on the acquisition of a 25% stake in Endesa from Acciona for $14 billion; it acted as adviser to Alleanza Assicurazioni on Assicurazioni Generali’s acquisition of the remaining 49% stake in the firm for $2.3 billion; and was adviser to Terna on the acquisition of Enel Linee Alta Tensione for $1.6 billion.