Swiss Shop Dominates Shrunken Fee Pool

Credit Suisse consumed the lion’s share of this year’s much smaller investment banking fee pool, aided by a solid year for M&A. The shop bagged $225.9m from in the year to December 18, or 17.8% of the market, from a combination of M&A, ECM, DCM and loans revenue, Dealogic data reveals. This compares to $398.1m (16.1%) for Credit Suisse LatAm investment banking in 2007, when the LatAm fee pool was almost 50% bigger. The Swiss shop finishes well ahead of second placed UBS ($131m, 10.3%) and third placed Citi ($115.9m, 9.1%) and benefits from a relative windfall in M&A. Credit Suisse made $102.4m from M&A this year, 20% of the market and far better than second placed Citi ($66.7m, 13%) and UBS in third ($57.6m, 11.3%), Dealogic numbers show. Credit Suisse almost doubled its M&A revenue year-on-year, from $56.9m (11.3%) in 2007. Overall, the LatAm fee pool for M&A, ECM, DCM and loans has contracted to $1.269bn, from $2.473bn the year before, according to Dealogic. This is a far cry from the bullish expectations of some investment bankers at the start of the year, particularly those that rapidly created oversized Brazil operations. The one lucrative business this year was M&A, where the fee pool expanded a slim 1.2%, while everywhere else shrank significantly. Bankers are braced for a tough 2009 as the global financial crisis continues. M&A looks relatively positive in terms of pipeline, while the outlook for DCM, ECM and structured finance is bleak. Local markets should continue to tick over in the bigger markets. The only potential competitive bright spot is the fact that several institutions will likely scale back their regional investment banking presence or withdraw completely.