ANNUAL SURVEY AND AWARDS— REDEFINING SUCCESS
By Michael Shari
Global investment banks and strong local banks make the list in our annual awards.
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 |
Best Investment Banks 2012
