Awards: Best Investment Banks 2012


ANNUAL SURVEY AND AWARDS— REDEFINING SUCCESS

By Michael Shari

Global investment banks and strong local banks make the list in our annual awards.

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For an investment bank, success has long been defined as staying true to one’s brand. In general, this means maintaining clients’ confidence in the bank’s ability to raise capital for them and to cobble together mergers and acquisitions. But the definition of success in investment banking changed in the frenetic markets of last year. Investors oscillated between risk-on and risk-off as the world hopscotched from crisis to crisis, dragging down equity market activity overall by 28% from the previous year. Last year saw 40% fewer initial public offerings worldwide than the high-water-mark year of 2007.

Many investment banks redefined their own success as “one word—survival,” says Fred Cannon, director of research at boutique investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. In such treacherous markets, investment banks that were able to raise the most capital—or any capital at all—had large balance sheets that could be deployed on a dime to keep a deal from falling apart. Not surprisingly, the titans of Wall Street had the upper hand in that game even before it started last summer.

But the Darwinian nature of last year also favored domestic banks. In countries where investors were the least inclined to take even carefully calculated risks, local banks with strong franchises that had avoided trouble in 2008–2009 grew market share.

Our selection criteria for determining the world’s best investment banks—how much capital a bank could raise for its clients in such a challenging market, market share, customer service and advice, deal structuring capabilities, distribution network, staff dedicated to investment banking—produced a diverse and interesting array of winners around the globe this year.

Best Investment Bank Goldman Sachs
Best Equity Bank J.P. Morgan
Best Debt Bank Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Best M&A Bank Goldman Sachs
Best Up-and-Comer Evercore Partners
Most Creative Stifel Nicolaus Weisel
Best Equity Deal: Glencore International $10.1 billion IPO, May 11, 2011
   
Lead Manager: Citi
   
Global Bookrunners: Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas
   
Best Debt Deal: Nationwide Building Society $19.9 billion in mortgage-backed securities (Silverstone Master Issuer pic Series 2011-1), October 31, 2011
   
Lead Managers: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, J.P. Morgan, UBS, Nationwide Building Society
   
Best M&A Deal: Kinder Morgan $37.88 billion acquisition of El Paso Corp, October 16, 2011
   
Advising Target: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs
   
Advising Acquirer: Evercore Partners, Barclays Capital
Consumer Citi
Financial Institutions Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
Healthcare Piper Jaffray
Infrastructure Scotiabank
Industrials/Chemicals Jefferies
Media/Entertainment J.P. Morgan
Metals & Mining BMO Capital Markets
Oil & Gas Goldman Sachs
Power Morgan Stanley
Real Estate Raymond James
Technology Morgan Stanley
Telecoms J.P. Morgan
NORTH AMERICA
Best Investment Bank Goldman Sachs
Best Equity Bank Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Best Debt Bank Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Best M&A Bank Goldman Sachs
 
 
WESTERN EUROPE
Best Investment Bank Credit Suisse
Best Equity Bank Credit Suisse
Best Debt Bank Barclays Capital
Best M&A Bank Goldman Sachs
 
 
ASIA
Best Investment Bank China International Capital Corp
Best Equity Bank Ping An Securities
Best Debt Bank China International Capital Corp
Best M&A Bank Nomura
 
 
CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE
Best Investment Bank Goldman Sachs
Best Equity Bank Goldman Sachs
Best Debt Bank VTB Capital
Best M&A Bank Deutsche Bank
 
 
NORDIC
Best Investment Bank Pareto Securities
Best Equity Bank Pareto Securities
Best Debt Bank Nordea Markets
Best M&A Bank SEB
 
 
LATIN AMERICA
Best Investment Bank Itaú BBA
Best Equity Bank Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Best Debt Bank Santander
Best M&A Bank BTG Pactual
 
 
MIDDLE EAST
Best Investment Bank Samba Capital
Best Equity Bank Gulf International Bank
Best Debt Bank HSBC
Best M&A Bank Goldman Sachs
 
 
AFRICA
Best Investment Bank Standard Bank
Best Equity Bank Java Capital
Best Debt Bank Barclays Capital
Best M&A Bank Goldman Sachs
NORTH AMERICA
Canada BMO Capital Markets
US Goldman Sachs
 
 
EUROPE
France BNP Paribas
Germany Deutsche Bank
Italy Intesa Sanpaolo
Netherlands ING
Portugal CaixaBI
Russia VTB Capital
Spain BBVA
Sweden Handelsbanken
Switzerland Credit Suisse
Turkey Oyak Yatirim
United Kingdom Barclays Capital
 
 
ASIA
Australia Macquarie
China China International Capital Corp
Hong Kong HSBC
India State Bank of India
Indonesia Mandiri Sekuritas
Japan Daiwa Capital Markets
Kazakhstan Halyk Finance
Mongolia Eurasia Capital
Singapore Standard Chartered
South Korea Samsung Securities
Taiwan Fubon Financial
 
 
LATIN AMERICA
Argentina Citi
Brazil Bradesco BBI
Chile LarrainVial
Colombia Bancolombia
Mexico Citi
 
 
MIDDLE EAST
Bahrain GIB Capital
Egypt Arab African International Bank
Israel HSBC
Jordan Arab Financial Investment
Kuwait Markaz
Lebanon BankMed
Oman BankMuscat
Qatar QInvest
Saudi Arabia Samba Capital
UAE Standard Chartered
 
 
AFRICA
Nigeria FBN Capital
South Africa Standard Bank
Global Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
North America Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Western Europe Linklaters
Asia Linklaters
CEE Dewey & LeBoeuf
Latin America Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Middle East & Africa Linklaters

alt Best Investment Banks 2012

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