Awards for Excellence 2017
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| © 2017 Euromoney |
| Full results |
To be a top bank in the financing arena in the last 12 months, you need to have demonstrated flexibility. The ability to move quickly from one market or currency to another, or to switch between different parts of the capital structure, requires product strength and the kind of internal coordination that many banks preach but few practise. One that has consistently made a virtue of such flexibility is Bank of America Merrill Lynch, our pick for North America’s best bank for financing.
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| AJ Murphy, BAML |
The bank took first place in the region in debt capital markets transactions by value, according to Dealogic, unseating last year’s leader JPMorgan. The bank also ranks third in equity capital markets and is the second-placed loans house. The rankings are testament to the bank’s scale but do not capture what its clients value most: its ability to move seamlessly across multiple areas and to bring together all the expertise the bank has to offer.
“We try to find situations where we have the edge, not cookie-cutter roles,” says AJ Murphy, BAML’s global head of capital markets. “We can pivot quickly between different options for a client.”
The bank’s deal roster bulges with examples of this in action. It was a co-structuring agent and joint bookrunner on a debut $1.3 billion junior subordinated hybrid debentures offering for Viacom in February this year, selling two tranches of 40-year non-call five and 10 notes that needed plenty of explanation to investors.
After two days of marketing, it ended up more than 11 times covered and secured a handsome tightening from initial estimates and a hefty subordination premium. The trade – a double-B deal for a triple-B issuer – was a testament to BAML’s ability to leverage its knowledge of multiple investor bases.
Nowhere was the bank’s flexibility in currency demonstrated better than in the three deals it executed for Molson Coors as active joint bookrunner and billing and delivery (B&D) on issues in US dollars, Canadian dollars and euros in the immediate wake of the Brexit referendum.
One highlight in equity capital markets was the $1.2 billion IPO of MGM Growth Properties in 2016, which reopened the market for flotations in the real estate sector. BAML was lead left bookrunner on the deal, which was the first real estate investment trust IPO to price at the top of its price range in more than three years.
In addition to the public markets work, there is plenty of muscle still in the bank’s ability to deploy balance sheet. When Abbott Laboratories was looking to acquire St Jude Medical, BAML was sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner on a $17.2 billion senior unsecured bridge to support the $30.7 billion deal – the financing being remarkable for having been executed while the bank still had an outstanding $9 billion bridge to support Abbott’s proposed acquisition of Alere.
Juggling the two bridges took plenty of creativity, but alongside that, the bank was also providing M&A advice to Abbott and was lead left bookrunner and B&D on a $15.1 billion bond issue to take out the St Jude bridge.
