Daniel Darahem believes he is in a good place. Brazil, he argues, is about to enjoy a benign external environment that will power economic growth for a decade or so.
The Brazilian markets have already sparked to life in 2021: international debt capital markets are “on fire” he says. JPMorgan led on Klabin’s successful sustainability-linked bond, which was first out of the gate for Brazilian issuers in 2021. Darahem is also very bullish on Brazil’s equity capital markets – his core expertise – in the coming years and he thinks M&A will rebound after a sluggish 2020.
And it’s clear he also thinks that JPMorgan is itself is well positioned. In a country with very strong local banks, it ranked fourth for investment banking revenues, according to Dealogic, with an 8.8% share (Bank of America, ranked second, was the only other international bank ahead of it.)
JPMorgan has also grown other Brazilian businesses, some from scratch. Darahem reminds Euromoney of a conversation from 2010 when the bank was launching its corporate banking business. That’s now a strong revenue driver for the country and last year had its record year.
