Awards for Excellence 2017
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| Also shortlisted |
| Bradesco BBI |
| Citi |
| Credit Suisse |
| Maybank |
| Press release |
| Full results |
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the world’s best advisory firm for 2017 thanks to lead financial advisory roles on both the buy and sell sides in many of the largest and most complex cross-border transactions that continue to transform industries in the era of giant M&A.
This is the result of a strategy laid out since the start of this decade by leaders such as Christian Meissner, a former Goldman partner and ex-Lehman banker, who joined in 2010 and is now global head of corporate and investment banking, and by Diego De Giorgi, another ex-Goldman banker, who joined in 2013 and is now head of the global investment banking business.
“M&A is not a product,” De Giorgi tells Euromoney. “It is the sum of all the relationships of a bank with its most important clients, right across the firm, expressed in one league table. We have focused relentlessly on delivering the capabilities needed to become the trusted adviser of choice to select large-cap corporate clients likely to undertake franchise transactions. I am particularly proud of the geographic breadth of our advisory business and our ability to lead advise on the most important cross-border transactions across the Americas, Europe and Asia.”
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Adrian Mee, BAML |
This year the firm is advising Bayer on its $66 billion agreed takeover of Monsanto in the US, the largest-ever foreign takeover by a German company and the largest all-cash M&A deal in history.
“Our lead advisory role for Bayer is a reflection of a consistent coverage effort over a long period of time by a global, multi-dimensional team led out of Germany,” says Adrian Mee, co-head of global M&A. “It shows the benefit of our investment in building out a full range of industry groups, with chemicals, pharma and consumer all relevant to Bayer, and in deepening our M&A business in both the US and Europe. All have been involved in supporting Bayer and working to be a trusted adviser to the company, who we also advised on the acquisition of Merck’s consumer-care business.”
Monsanto had previously tried to do a deal with Syngenta, so when Bayer came with an unsolicited approach, the German company had to play its hand well to secure an agreed deal at the right value, knowing that regulators would inevitably require some disposals.
BAML can handle complexity.
It is advising Actelion, another long-standing client, on the $30 billion sale of its developed-drugs pipeline to Johnson & Johnson and the concurrent spin-out to investors of its early-stage pipeline in a new Swiss biotech company.
“We have been close to the senior team at Actelion for some time,” says Mee. “Historically, they were not interested in being acquired and, when an activist pressed them to sell, successfully convinced shareholders that it would be better to remain independent and develop their pipeline on their own. When the dialogue developed with J&J, we were able to help develop a novel deal structure that ultimately crystallized for shareholders a 90% premium in cash consideration for Actelion’s marketed portfolio and gave them a continuing interest in a new drug discovery and early-stage pipeline company called Idorsia.”
It is a structure that has attracted a lot of attention in the consolidating healthcare and pharmaceutical industry.
In Asia, the firm is advising a private-equity consortium, made up of Hillhouse Capital, CDH Investments and management on the $6.8 billion take-private of Hong Kong-listed Belle International.
Belle is the largest ladies’ footwear retailer in China, one of the country’s largest sportswear retailers (it has almost 21,000 stores in China), the largest distributor for Adidas globally and the second-largest distributor for Nike globally. It has been facing challenges from e-commerce in recent years, and the consortium plans to contribute financial and operating resources to upgrade the company’s retail model.
The transaction is the largest-ever private equity sponsor-led privatization in Asia Pacific and the largest private-equity sponsor-led M&A globally so far in 2017.
Last year, BAML advised State Grid Corporation of China on its $13.6 billion acquisition of CPFL Energia in Brazil, one of the largest outbound acquisitions ever by a Chinese company.
The deal was achieved in a series of steps with State Grid initially acquiring a 23.6% stake from Camargo Correa, with other private corporate investors later exercising their tag-along rights to sell their stakes. The acquirer finally launched a mandatory offer for the remaining shares.
It is nice to be able to write a big cheque, but that’s not what gets such deals done.
BAML has joined the bulge bracket to stay. De Giorgi says: “Advisory is the key battleground for us. It’s absolutely at the core of our whole corporate and investment banking strategy.”
