LatinFinance - January/February 2015 - 69

M&A HOUSE

Credit Suisse
The bank's global and
local networks helped it
advise on an array of large
domestic and cross-border
transactions
As equity issuance remains tough,
investment bankers hope mergers and
acquisitions will be an alternative for
companies that want to bring in fresh
capital. They also hope M&A can help offset
the absence of large equity market fees.
Strategic investors from outside the
region are taking a long view, say some -
looking past short-term economic troubles
and taking advantage in some instances of
constrained financial positions locally.
Dealogic data for the first nine months
of the year showed 4% growth in M&A
revenue in Latin America compared with
the same period in
2013, reaching $373
million. Announced
deals led by buyers
outside the region
were up around a
third, however.
Credit Suisse's
global network makes
it well-placed to bring
in foreign direct
investors, while its
local presence helps
it advise on domestic
deals. Partly as a
result, it is at the top

of the advisory league table for completed
M&A deals by some distance.
In the 12 months to the end of
September, Credit Suisse advised on deals
worth $26 billion, compared with totals
of $20 billion each by its nearest rivals,
Citibank and Deutsche Bank. Credit Suisse
also worked on 31 deals, twice as many as
Citi or Deutsche Bank, which worked on 13
and 14, respectively, according to Dealogic.
Credit Suisse's Latin America M&A team
consists of five bankers in New York, two
in Brazil, and one in Mexico, says Daniel
Cavalli, managing director. The integration
of his team with the bank's global New
York-based M&A team is an advantage, he
says: "It played a role in our success."
At the same time, Credit Suisse has been
more committed to maintaining local
operations and relationships than other
global banks, Cavalli says. "Credit Suisse
has a very local, Latin America-driven M&A
business," he says.
One example of global and local knowhow, he says, is the $7 billion sale of the
Las Bambas mine in Peru to a Chineseled consortium, MMG. The deal was
the biggest completed M&A deal in the
period, according to Dealogic, and takes
LatinFinance's award for Cross-Border
M&A Deal of the Year. Credit Suisse advised
the seller, Glencore.
Credit Suisse led Glencore through
its initial public offering in 2011 and its
merger with Xstrata in 2013. Its Peruvian

STANDING TALL: Credit Suisse worked
on a broad array of equity and M&A
transactions

©REUTERS

says. "The expectations are running high.
That's part of the reason why you see this
disparity in valuations between one market
and the next."
Indeed, Mexico is likely to be the most
competitive market in the year ahead, says
Gilfond. While competitors are bulking up
there, he takes pride in the bank's "very
seasoned" equity capital markets team,
based in Brazil and New York.
"We've had the good fortune of having
a very strong market share and a lot of
experience doing many transactions," he
says. "It's a well-oiled machine. We're just
continuing to focus on clients." LF

experience, including its involvement in
mining privatizations in the late 1990s,
made it even better qualified to advise on
the deal.
The combination of global and regional
networks played a part in other large deals,
such as the $400 million acquisition of a
65% stake in Brazil's Sudeste Superport by
Trafigura and Middle East sovereign wealth
fund Mubadala. Credit Suisse advised the
seller, Eike Batista's MMX.
Credit Suisse also advised a consortium
of Brazil's engineering and construction
company Odebrecht and Singapore's
Changi airport in the $8.2 billion
privatization of Rio de Janeiro's Galeão
aiport.
"We're good at connecting distant
emerging markets," says Cavalli.
Meanwhile, local relationships were
crucial to more regionally orientated
deals, such as a $720 million US acquisition
by Colombia's Cementos Argos and the
acquisition of a $1.8 billion real estate
portfolio from Mexico's MRP by local real
estate trust Fibra Uno - another regular
client of the investment bank. LF

LOAN HOUSE

HSBC
Deals in a wide range of
currencies and structures,
sectors and geographies,
including debut issuers
and repeat mandates,
made the winning bank
stand out
HSBC's loan franchise continues to thrive
alongside its equally well-performing
bond market franchise. The breadth and
complexity of HSBC's deals made the
bank stand out in these awards. Its book
included local currency deals, project
financings, and transactions for companies
new to the loan market, covering a wide
range of industries and countries: from
banking, to mining, to oil and gas, and
from Peru, to Brazil to Mexico.
Among HSBC's deals were many of the
biggest loans of the period. In March the
bank led a senior unsecured loan for Peru's
Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde, majority

January/February 2015 - L ATINFINA NCE.COM 69
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