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Investment Bank of the Year Latin America
Year: 2022
Winner: Bank of America
Investment bankers like to point out that making money is never easy – and it’s a truism thatwas especially true in 2022, when markets effectively fell off a cliff.Yet against this troubling backdrop, Bank of America was one firm that stood out for havingexcelled across market segments. […]
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Loan House of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: J.P. Morgan
In 2022, when rising interest rates piled pressure on potential bond issuers to offer higheryields, many firms turned to the bank markets to fulfil their financing needs. A meaningfulnumber of borrowers turned to J.P. Morgan to arrange their loans.The Wall Street firm, […]
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M&A House of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Bank of America
According to Augusto Urmeneta, head of global corporate and investment banking for LatinAmerica at Bank of America, mergers and acquisitions have been the “great equalizer” ofinvestment banking, compensating for much of the revenue lost on account of the slump inequity markets.BofA, […]
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Bond House of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: J.P Morgan
In a market where issuers were reluctant to place new bonds, J.P. Morgan made the most of itby taking part in some of the most significant debt capital raisings of the awards period.In doing so, it also ended up at the top of the bond rankings, […]
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Law Firm of the Year – Andes
Year: 2022
Winner: Milbank
Global law firm Milbank has made a name for itself throughout Latin America, but it played astand-out role during the awards period in a number high-profile restructurings and M&Atransactions coming out of the Andes, from the Caribbean coast in Colombia to the snowcapped mountains of Chile.The firm worked on some of the most significant deals of the year, […]
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Law Firm of the Year – Brazil
Year: 2022
Winner: Mattos Filho
Brazilian markets in 2022 once again provided the venue for some of the most significant andnoteworthy transactions in Latin America – despite a sharp market downturn in an electionyear that also saw the bulk of deal-making effectively grind to a halt.Against this backdrop, […]
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Law Firm of the Year – Mexico
Year: 2022
Winner: Ritch Mueller
Despite a generalized global market downturn in 2022, Mexican issuers, public and privatealike, managed not only to raise meaningful sums of capital, but often in highly innovativeways.A common denominator in many of landmark capital markets transactions was Mexican lawfirm Ritch Mueller. […]
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Sustainable Finance Law Firm of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Shearman & Sterling
As sustainable and ESG financings have proliferated across Latin America and the Caribbean,issuers have relied increasingly on their advisors to help chart the course through the constantlyevolving landscape. This is especially so when it comes to the legal, regulatory and compliancechallenges posed by sustainable financings – whether green instruments, […]
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Law Firm of the Year – Latin America
Year: 2022
Winner: Clery Gottlieb
For many Latin American issuers, 2022 was a year to hunker down and prepare for a morefavorable marketplace.For global law firm Cleary Gottlieb, however, the sharp slowdown in traditional capitalmarkets issuance among its clients hardly meant less work for the firm. […]
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Structured Financing of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: $3BN Financing for Pemex Refinery Upgrades
Different state enterprises in Mexico came together in 2022 to structure a financing tomodernize two of state-owned oil company Pemex’s refineries.The resulting $3 billion transaction, which wins the award for Structured Financing of theYear, included a $900 million bridge loan to a Pemex subsidiary and a $2.1 billion revolvingloan to a Special Purpose Mexican Trust, […]
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Corporate Local Currency Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Equatorial Energia Renewables Acquisition Financing
The acquisition of the largest independent wind power company by utility and power groupEquatorial Energia was one of the flagship deals of Brazil’s energy market in recent years.Equatorial closed the acquisition of Echoenergia in March 2022 after structuring a R$7 billionfinancial commitment from banks in a package that included what Citi calls the largest greendebenture ever issued in the country.The R$2 billion debenture was composed by two tranches: the first had a 5-year maturity andraised R$1.7 billion; […]
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Sovereign Local Currency Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: UMS Inaugural $1BN Local Sustainable Bond
Mexico’s government rarely goes to the market with a debt instrument that does not includesome kind of innovation.It outdid itself, however, in May 2022 with its inaugural sustainable sovereign bond in pesos.The dual-tranche bond for 20 billion pesos, […]
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FI Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: BCI Chile $500M Issuance
Chile’s Banco de Crédito e Inversiones, or BCI, achieved several milestones for the bank andfor Chile’s banking sector as a whole.BCI returned to the debt capital markets in October 2021 after a four- year absence, placing$500 million in 144A Reg S bonds yielding 2.875% and 3.081%.The 10-year senior unsecured notes achieved the lowest yield for a bond of that duration issuedby a Chilean financial institution, […]
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Corporate Restructuring of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Avianca $1.1BN Restructuring
Colombia’s Avianca is used to being on the cutting edge. It was the first airline established inLatin America more than 100 years ago and is the second oldest airline still operating in theworld. It has consistently vied with competitors to adopt new strategies to meet customerdemand.It set a new milestone in May 2020, […]
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Sovereign Restructuring of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Belize Blue Bonds for Ocean Conservation
Belize may be the smallest country in the continental Americas, but it made an enormoussplash in the market with a debt-for-conservation swap that has contributed to its dramaticfinancial turnaround.The November 2021 transaction, known as the Blue Bond for Ocean Conservation, […]
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Financing Innovation of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Rumichaca Pasto $906M 4G Toll Road Financing
When evaluating options for refinancing the Rumichaca-Pasto 4G road concession inColombia, Spanish construction group Sacyr went for boldness.The company plumped for a hybrid approach that mixed loans from banks in both dollars andpesos with the issuance of a 144-S bond to entice capital markets investors to back the deal. […]
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Syndicated Loan of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Cemex $3BN Sustainbaility-Linked Loan
Midway through 2021, Cemex, the global cement company, began thinking about possiblenew financings as the world emerged from the pandemic.It had raised money during the unprecedented worldwide shutdown and was using cash todeleverage the company, but it wanted something different.“We felt that it was time for us to go to the market with something profoundly different thanwhat we had done in the past,” says Maher Al-Haffar, […]
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Domestic M&A Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Hapvida Gndi Merger
The merger of Hapvida and Grupo Notre Dame Intermédica (GNDI), which closed in February2022, helped create Brazil’s largest company in one of the country’s most dynamic sectors. Thenew healthcare group boasts more than 13.5 million policyholders and combined net revenueof almost R$24 billion in 2021.The merger, […]
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Cross Border M&A Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Cencosud Acquisition of Fresh Market Holdings
In 2022, Chilean retailer Cencosud undertook a bold acquisition that made it a relevant playerin the US market.The deal, which closed in May and which wins the award for Cross Border M&A Deal of theYear, saw the company spend $676 million to acquire a 67% stake in The Fresh Market(TFM), […]
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Corporate ESG Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: CBC The Central America Bottling Corporation $1.1BN SLB and Exchange
Shortly after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the board of Grupo Mariposa, theconglomerate that owns Central America Bottling Corporation (CBC), concluded that it wastime to strengthen the company’s ESG commitments. By January 2022, […]
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Sovereign ESG Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Republic of Chile Inaugural $2.2BN Sustainability-Linked Bond
Chile made waves in global bond markets in 2022 with the first sustainability-linked bond everoffered by a sovereign issuer.The $2.2 billion sustainability-linked bond, which wins the award for Sovereign ESG Deal ofthe Year, is noteworthy not only for its pioneering qualities; […]
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Private Equity Deal of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Stonepeak Acquisition of Lumen Latin American Operations
In August 2022, New York-based Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners closed the purchase of$2.7 billion worth of assets previously owned by Lumen Technologies in Latin America, givingthe company a strong presence in the fiber business in the region.The assets include extensive subsea and terrestrial fiber networks, […]
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Equity Follow-On of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Eletrobras $6.89BN Equity Follow-On Offering
The privatization via capital increase of Eletrobras, Brazil’s largest power utility company, wasa deal that had it all.It was big, at R$34 billion. It was complex, as it required the approval of new laws and theinvolvement of government audit bodies, […]
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IPO of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Nubank
The winner of the award for IPO of the Year was the largest deal of its kind in 2021 in LatinAmerica – and also one of the last to launch before markets nosedived in 2022.In December 2021, digital bank Nubank decided to go public by listing its shares on the NewYork Stock Exchange with a concomitant issuance of Brazilian Depository Receipts (BDRs) inSão Paulo, […]
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Corporate Liability Management Of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Vale
The old cliché that every challenge is also an opportunity could aptly apply to the winner of theaward for Corporate Liability Management of the Year.In June 2022, when capital markets were shaken by geopolitical and macroeconomicuncertainty, Brazilian miner Vale decided to buy back up to $1 billion in bonds to improve theprofile of its debt. […]
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Quasi-Sovereign Liability Management of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Pemex $1BN Exchange & Tender Offer
Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Pemex, is in the midst of a major financial overhaul toreprofile its debt as it strives to increase oil and gas production.The company, in conjunction with Mexico’s finance ministry, announced in December 2021 aliability management operation to ease the company’s tax burden to 40% from 52%, […]
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Sovereign Liability Management of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Dominican Republic $3.56BN Dual-Tranche Offering
The Dominican Republic’s government got to do something in 2022 that most countries canonly dream about when it comes to their annual budget.The government went to Congress to ask to reduce, rather than increase, the amount externalfunding authorized in the budget. […]
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Subnational Bond of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Edomex $145M ESG Bond
Green mobility and safe havens for vulnerable women were two areas targeted for support lastyear by the State of Mexico, commonly known as Edoméx, via a new ESG bond issued by thestate’s government.The MXN2.89 billion ($145-million) bond was designed taking into account the U.N.Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), […]
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Corporate Hiegh-Yield Bond of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Braskem Idesa $1.2BN Sustainability-Linked Bond
Timing was key to the success of Braskem Idesa’s inaugural sustainability-linked bond (SLB),which not only achieved strong demand from investors but also enshrined ambitious pledges toreduce the company’s carbon footprint.The $1.2 billion SLB by the Mexican company was placed in October 2021, […]
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Corporate High-Grade Bond of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: América Móvil Sitios $1BN “Travel” Bond
Mexican telecoms giant América Móvil decided a few years back that it wanted to unload itscellular towers to concentrate on innovating its communications network.It created a new company in 2015 to take over nearly 12,000 towers in Mexico and in 2021decided to do the same more than 30,000 towers in 15 countries, […]
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Quasi-Sovereign Bond of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: CFE Inaugural $1.75BN Sustainable Bond
Mexico’s state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has embarked on its mostambitious initiative since it began construction of its first hydroelectric plant nearly 85 yearsago.That plant, Ixtapantango, had the capacity to generate 28 megawatts of electricity for MexicoCity. The new plan, […]
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Sovereign Bond of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: UMS $5.8BN BOND + EXCHANGE
Mexico’s government likes to get a jump on meeting its annual funding needs and traditionally,it is one of the first nations to tap international markets each year.Its offering in January 2022 not only followed precedent, by coming to the market early – witha $5.8 billion in a dual-tranche offering that closed on January 4 – the sovereign was also ableto achieve favorable pricing.María del Carmen Bonilla, […]
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Sustainable Borrower of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Cemex
The credentials of the construction and building materials sector may not be the first to springto mind when contemplating the fight against climate change, but regional cement leaderCemex wants that to change.The company has set aggressive targets for decarbonization by 2030 and 2050, […]
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Corporate Issuer of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: América Móvil
2022 was a tough year for global markets – and Latin America was not immune.Russia’s war against Ukraine combined with the effects of an unprecedented pandemic-erastimulus and a system awash with liquidity to stoke runaway inflation globally – and anaggressive series of interest rate hikes to combat rising prices had the effect of dampeninginvestor appetite for risk assets across the board.The result for Latin America and the Caribbean was a steep drop in external bond issuance.The U.N. […]
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Sovereign Issuer of the Year
Year: 2022
Winner: Republic of Chile
Chile has long been favored by investors for its track record of sound fiscal management. 2022was no exception in this regard. But what was different was the significant boost to its alreadywell-established credentials as a sustainable innovator in sovereign debt markets.The country, […]