In February 2020 BofA Securities reorganized its corporate and investment banking teams in Latin America, with Augusto Urmeneta becoming head of corporate and investment banking. At that time Hans Lin, head of Brazil investment banking – a key market for the bank and one in which it has excelled – joined the bank’s global private capital council. Meanwhile Bruno Saraiva was named co-head of Brazil investment banking alongside Lin, who remains in charge of the ECM team.
It seemed to work. As well as receiving the investment bank award, BofA Securities is also Latin America’s best bank for advisory. The 12 months since the reorganization have been extremely strong – particularly in ECM and M&A advisory, the latter led by Martin Sanchez, head of mergers and acquisitions in Latin America. According to Dealogic, BofA topped the fee tables in both M&A ($48.7 billion for a 14.2% market share) and ECM ($98.1 million, 12.7% share).
BofA’s success is built on its reach. During the review period it advised on 20 M&A transactions, spanning 10 different industries and seven countries – and nine were cross-border transactions. Unsurprisingly some of these deals were very large, such as the $4.9 billion acquisition of Peru’s Luz del Sur by China Yangtze Power, on which the bank advised the target. BofA Securitites also led on transformational deals elsewhere in the Andean region, in Brazil, the southern cone, central America and the Caribbean and Mexico.
The ECM team was active in many of the region’s largest equity offerings, being lead left and global coordinator on the $2.23 billion IPO by Rede D’Or Sao Luiz, as well as executing follow-ons, block trades and convertible deals across the region.
