LatAm Issuers Call For Better One-Stop Banks

Investment banks have a way to go to fully satisfy some of their Latin American issuer clients. Alfredo Ergas, CFO of Enersis, based in Chile, calls for a bank that can give a full range of services. “We need a holistic bank that can provide advice on taxes, local markets and a number of other things,” he says. He adds that he’s happy to pay the fees if a bank can bring him something he cannot find on his own. Richard Lark, CFO of Brazilian airline Gol, says there is not a bank in Brazil that can provide everything his company wants. “We haven’t been able to find all of the executions we want to do at one bank, and have had to work with two or three banks,” he says. Lark adds that the challenge for Brazilian banks will be to develop a new generation of seasoned advisors. Both were speaking on a panel with other issuers at the Latin American Borrowers and Investors Forum (Labif), a LatinFinance/Euromoney conference in New York.