Awards for Excellence 2017
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch wins the award for best bank for advisory.
The bank, which also claims the award for best investment bank, clearly has a strong and broad franchise but its advisory is arguably the jewel in its crown. The M&A practice, led by co-heads Martin Sanchez and Marcus Silberman, generated almost $60 million in fees, according to Dealogic, a 14.2% market share and not far away from double the $35 million of Credit Suisse’s M&A revenue (an 8.6% market share).
The bank advised on deals worth a combined $36.8 billion – an eye-popping 34.6% share. To generate those numbers, a bank needs to be active throughout the region, and BAML delivered an impressively geographically diverse and top-tier client list. In Mexico, the bank advised Cemex and Bimbo. In the Andean region, Corpbanca, ColSanitas and PetroPeru. In Brazil, Duke Energy, Cruzeiro do Sul and Hypermarcas and in the southern cone, Pampa Energia.
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Martin Sanchez, |
The bank also advised on some truly regional deals, such as when it was exclusive financial adviser to Enersis in a reorganization that spanned Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. The truly transformational deal streamlined Enersis’ structure to eliminate overlaps, cross-ownerships and duplications. BAML was the sole bank advising Enersis in its restructuring of its business into Enersis Chile and Enersis Americas.
Some of the banks other high-profile deals include advising Chinese company State Grid on its $8.8 billion acquisition of a 54.6% stake in CPFL from Carmago Correa, Previ and Bonaire. The deal is the largest-ever Asian outbound M&A into the power and utility sector and the largest-ever acquisition in Latin America by a Chinese company.
Also in Brazil, BAML was the exclusive adviser to Petrobras as it worked through its $58 billion divestment programme and sold its 66% interest in the BM-S-8 concession to Statoil, which is the first time a pre-salt concession has been sold along with the transfer of operations. It was also the largest-ever divestment by Petrobras.
