Awards for Excellence 2017
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch wins the award for the best investment bank in the region.
Led by Augusto Urmeneta, head of investment banking Latin America, the bank has established a genuinely pan-regional, full-service presence that most of the competition simply cannot match. The numbers back this up; the bank is the only one to be a top three performer in M&A, equity capital markets and debt capital markets. According to Dealogic, the bank has grown its share of investment banking fees from an eighth place market share of 4.8% in 2009 to a 12.2% share and first place in 2016. Second placed Citi was well back with a share of 8.4%.
BAML brought Brazil back to the international debt capital markets with Petrobras – as well as the sovereign and an impressive array of corporate deals. The bank’s 50-plus deal list ticks so many of the best of the year, including Vale, CPFL, Minerva Foods, Suzano and Fibria. Outside Brazil, the list is no less stellar: Pemex, Corbanca, Banco Hipotecario, BCP, Banorte and Bimbo. In central America, it worked on sovereign deals for Honduras, Guatemala and Jamaica.
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Augusto Urmeneta, |
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is also one of the leading regional ECM franchises. In a troubled segment, it was present on many of the important deals, including the R$1.5 billion ($452 million) IPO for Energisa, the largest IPO in Latin America for more than a year, and one that effectively re-opened Brazilian ECM. It was also the global coordinator for the largest healthcare IPO in the region for five years, Hermes Pardini’s R$877 million issue and was the joint global coordinator and stabilization agent for another key deal in that industry, Alliar Medicos A Frente’s R$674 million IPO.
Also in Brazil, the bank was lead left coordinator on two of the most successful follow-ons – for Taesa and CVC. BAML was the global coordinator for Grupo Supervielle’s IPO – a ground-breaking trade that reopened Latin American ECM in 2016 and was the first Argentine IPO in five years.
BAML is also the standout bank in M&A, comfortably leading the league tables in terms of volumes and range of deals across the region and across sectors. The bank maintained a steady flow in M&A last year, including advising State Grid Corp of China on its $5.6 billion acquisition of a 54.6% stake in Brazil’s CPFL. The bank also advised the Mexican government on the awarding of the telecommunication rights that are expected to generate up to $10 billion of investment over the next 10 years.
