Merrill Poaches Again from CS

Merrill Lynch has hired Adriano Borges from Credit Suisse, where he was head of the real estate investment banking business for Brazil, say people familiar with the matter. The move is a blow to the Swiss institution, which has led Brazil’s real estate equity business since 2004 with 33% of the total underwriting pool, according to Dealogic. CS led 11 out of the 27 deals priced in the region, fewer than the 14 led by UBS, but worth more in terms of total deal size, at $2.7bn. Borges, who moved to CS in 1999 as a technology banker, shifted to real estate coverage in 2004 just before the start of the IPO boom in that sector. He was behind Cyrela’s debut offering in 2005 and subsequent follow-ons. Borges also helped garner sole mandates for his shop on Agra, Inpar and Gafisa, as well as joint-lead roles on 6 others, according to Dealogic. Borges, expected to be a managing director at Merrill, is the second senior investment banking executive to leave CS for Merrill in a month. Sebastien Chatel, head of ECM who spent less than a year at the shop, departed in March to rejoin former UBS colleagues at Merrill as co-head of ECM. Merrill has been the most aggressive hirer in Brazil investment banking so far this year, bringing on eight new staffers from CS and UBS Pactual. The US shop is betting heavily on sustained strength in the Brazilian fee pool, which has been drained by a plunge in equity volume.