Year: 2022

Winner: Morgan Stanley

In a year in which equity deals all but dried up in Latin America, Morgan Stanley managed to
play a leading role in the two most noteworthy transactions to hit the market.
The firm, which wins the award for Equity House of the Year, was the lead-left bookrunner for
Nubank’s landmark $2.6 billion IPO in December 2021 – a deal that was not only the largest
IPO of the period, but also highly innovative.
Marcello Lo Re, head of Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley in São Paulo, says the offering
was “very complex” as a result of its multiple parts.
Nubank listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange at the same time it issued BDRs on
São Paulo’s B3, among other innovations. The deal won the award for IPO of the Year.
Morgan Stanley was also a bookrunner for Eletrobras’ R$34bn follow-on offer in June 2022,
which in practice meant the privatization of the Brazilian power utility firm in a long-delayed
and politically delicate transaction. That transaction won the award for Equity Follow-On of
the Year.
“The Eletrobras board took hundreds of meetings with the market, which is unusual for a
follow-on deal. They did a superb job of it,” says Lo Re.
The argument in Morgan Stanley’s favor is also backed by league tables which put the Wall
Street bank at the top of the Latin American equity rankings, with a 16.2% share of the market
during the awards period, according to Dealogic. Its performance is significant especially
considering the low volume of equity deals over that period.
Only Brazil’s B3 registered significant listings, and the very few deals on offer mostly lacked the
participation of global investors.
“Most of the IPOs and follow-on deals that took place since the last quarter of 2021 had a
majority domestic investors,” says Alessandro Zema, Brazil country head and co-head of
Investment Banking in Latin America at Morgan Stanley.
Looking forward, the executives expect the equity market to remain on hold until there is more
clarity about the direction of US monetary policy.
“The second half of the year should definitely be better,” Lo Re says. “Companies are already
discussing the convenience of start working to be prepared for the second half of 2023 or in 2024.” LF