Awards for Excellence 2019
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Variety has always been the hallmark of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (BAML) financing strength, and the 12 months under review were no exception. With strong deal volumes across a range of asset classes and deal types, and a presence on some of the banner transactions of the year, the firm wins the award for North America’s best bank for financing.
It leads the rankings for investment-grade corporate issuance in the region and is top three in high yield. It is second for FIG issuance but with far more deals than JPMorgan, the volume leader. In US private placements, the bank has been the market leader for an astounding 22 years – its market share was nearly 30% from 58 deals.
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| Sarang Gadkari |
“A focus for us has always been opening new markets and reopening old markets,” says Sarang Gadkari, co-head of global capital markets. “This year we did the first investment-grade bond in January – as well as the first high-yield bond after there had been nothing for 40 days.”
In equity capital markets, BAML leads alongside Goldman Sachs for IPOs in the period and is comfortably top in equity-linked.
Its lending remains formidable, second only to JPMorgan in signed loans and jointly leading the rankings with JPMorgan in leveraged loans.
The bank targets top-three positions in the areas where it participates, meaning that it has ticked plenty of boxes. But volume is only part of the story. What stands out for BAML this year is its ability to put all the parts of its financing operation to work in its list of landmark deals.
Its work for Broadcom is one example. The bank was lead arranger and joint active bookrunner on the $18 billion term loan that backed the company’s acquisition of Computer Associates, where it underwrote half the deal. It was then a global coordinator with billing and delivery for an $11 billion bond issue, Broadcom’s second largest ever.
A deal that played to structural expertise and the firm’s increasing focus on securing repeat business for top corporate clients was for Vodafone, which over the last year has been financing its acquisition of part of Liberty Global’s operations. BAML was global coordinator on the borrower’s inaugural SEC-registered $2 billion hybrid trade, the fourth leg of a financing operation that had seen the bank lead all parts across the year.
BAML is no slouch when it comes to sustainable finance, a trend that the bank is helping to define. A prime example was its work as green structuring agent (alongside an active bookrunner role with billing and delivery) for the $1 billion inaugural green bond for Verizon – the first in the US telecoms sector.
In leveraged loans, the $13.5 billion loan and bond financing for Blackstone’s acquisition of Refinitiv was the largest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis. The $6.5 billion term loan B that BAML actively led was the biggest B2/B-rated syndicated loan ever.
The bank’s domestic IPO franchise has seen a remarkable rise to a number one ranking – a position it last held in 2013. Again, it is the variety of the business that is striking, with more deals than any other firm.
It was involved in many jumbo deals such as Axa Equitable Holdings’ $3.2 billion offer. But what stands out in BAML’s business is the work it did on smaller, less obvious trades, like the $305 million IPO for Yeti, the only domestic consumer IPO in 2018, and the $317 million deal for Gossamer Bio, the first healthcare IPO in 2019 and one that came in the immediate wake of the SEC shutdown.
