Deals

Biggest, tightest, longest, cheapest. Superlatives abound when describing LatAm capital markets and advisory for the last 12 months, and many bankers expect the good times to continue rolling.

Credit Suisse is back on top again, aiming to leverage relationships throughout emerging markets to further stoke the coals of its LatAm investment banking engine. The Swiss house coasts on rising revenue from M&A, equity and fixed income, but has not slipped into complacency.

The rapidly rising tide of LatAm fixed income lifted all underwriters in 2010, creating at least four serious contenders for Best Bond House.

Late 2009 and 2010 will be remembered as a period when equity issuance returned to LatAm with mixed results.

A $1.5 billion dual-currency bond issue in July 2010 of dollar denominated and global-local notes marked the re-emergence of Chile, a historically infrequent issuer, and set a benchmark for its corporates.

Brazil’s BNDES has become a regular in the DCM after returning in 2008 from a 10-year hiatus.

América Móvil (AMX) is a frequent star of LatAm issuance, beloved by investors despite its razor thin spread and feared by bankers for its rigorous execution standards.

Southern Copper Corporation (SCC) saw jumbo demand for a $1.5 billion April 2010 issue of new 10 and 30-year bonds, which were tightly priced but still traded up.

At a time when the syndicated loan market was still thawing from a deep, crisis-driven freeze, Americas Mining Corporation (AMC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Grupo México, provided an encouraging sign.

After suffering derivative losses in the 2008-2009 crisis, Brazil’s Aracruz Celulose was purchased by Votorantim Celulose e Papel.

Colombia paved the way for LatAm issuers in April with an $800 million 2021 equivalent global TES bond. It braved the market to issue the first global local currency deal from LatAm since 2007, according to Dealogic.

Investors could be forgiven for forgetting that Mexico had an equity market, or at least one with new issuers.

In June, UK-based private equity giant Apax Partners, through its Dethalas vehicle, closed on its first investment in Brazil.

Love it or hate it, there was no avoiding the giant, black, viscous elephant in the room of LatAm equity last year.

In a year of significantly increased Chinese buying of LatAm assets, CNOOC’s purchase of 50% of Bridas was one of the largest South-South deals.

Braskem’s 2010 acquisition of Quattor Participacoes, Polibutenos and Unipar Comercial forges a new petrochemical giant in the Brazilian petrochemicals market.

In just three months of extremely choppy external markets, Project Jaguar scored a coup.

The State of Mexico (Edomex) in August issued a much anticipated 4.1 billion peso 20-year local bond, the first securitization of future flows of income from residential property fees from a Mexican state.

New York-based Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is no stranger to megadeals.