Latin Finance - March/April 2009 - 4

People Merrill LatAm Chairman Exits Merrill Lynch’s Latin America chairman Carlos Gutierrez has left the firm, retiring after 20 years. The exit of such a widely respected veteran financier is a major LatAm loss for Merrill, which is heard under pressure to shrink its regional platform following the sale to Bank of America. “He retired,” says a Mexico-based source. “He has been around for over 20 years and he thought it was a good window of opportunity to take his package, given the whole environment and how things look going forward,” adds the banker. Gutierrez, head of Merrill’s Mexico operations for more than a decade, was promoted to chairman in early September, based in Mexico City. In that role, he was Merrill’s senior LatAm relationship manager, charged with expanding cross-border business to other parts of the world and boosting coverage of multinationals and top non-LatAm private clients doing business in the region. Francisco Hernandez, a director in charge of Mexican DCM, local and cross-border, also has left the Mexico office. Amid severe pressure on BofA’s share price, more rounds of layoffs are expected at the firm globally. Further LatAm exits are highly likely, both forced and voluntary. “Some people are being let go and others are leaving because of what is going on,” says an insider. Meanwhile, Marcia Vorona, who until November was in charge of LatAm loan syndications at RBS-ABN AMRO, has resurfaced at Santander. The Brazilian banker has been named executive director in the Spanish bank’s LatAm structured finance group, and will report to Marcelo Castro, head of that group. She will be responsible for origination and structuring, but may also be involved in distribution and syndication. Citi Banker Rejects Departure Chatter Ricardo Lacerda, the São Paulo-based co-head of LatAm investment banking at Citi, says he is not in contact with other institutions regarding his, or his team’s, potential relocation to another shop. “I emphatically deny that I had any contact whatsoever with any institution about assuming a position outside of Citi,” he tells LatinFinance. “I am fully committed and focused on my duty as head of Citi’s investment bank operation in Brazil and Latin America. Any rumors and speculations otherwise are false and unfounded.” Eduardo Centola, a veteran LatAm banker who spent the last nine years at Goldman Sachs, has landed at Standard Bank, where he will be regional head for the Americas, based in São Paulo. Centola will lead the region’s various businesses, including investment banking, sales and trading, with several senior MDs in New York and São Paulo reporting to him. Standard is among the few investment banks expanding its business in the Americas, and is expected to further build a Brazil M&A platform with a senior hire. Ecuador finance minister Maria Viteri’s fate hung in the balance as of mid-February, with the official having offered her resignation. President Rafael Correa indicated he would decide whether to remove her, after she submitted incorrect information about the salaries of university authorities. In Peru, José Luis Carranza has returned to the finance minister post, replacing Luis Valdivieso, who resigned. Valdivieso had replaced Carranza in July 2008. LF Corrections: In the February edition of LatinFinance, the Deals of the Year Financing Innovation award misspelled the name of the entity structuring the transaction. The correct name is COTAMSA. In the same issue, “Mexican Cement Cracks Up” states an incorrect Moody’s rating for Rinker. The correct rating at the time of publication was Ba3. It has since been lowered to B1. BNP Loses Heads Marco Bramer, head of LatAm loan syndications at BNP Paribas, plans to leave the firm. Bramer declines to comment on the conditions surrounding his exit. The move will be a loss for BNP, say syndications executives at other shops, who praise his experience and contacts within the lending community, which are a difficult asset to replace. BNP officials confirm the exit, but decline to say whether a replacement will be appointed. Elsewhere at BNP, Todd Steinberg, head of equity derivatives and commodities for the Americas, has voluntarily resigned, apparently in protest of the bank’s compensation and redundancy policies. BNP allegedly laid off a much larger portion of its US hires than it did its European and French staff, in part due to tougher European labor laws. Steinberg is to be replaced by Lionel Crassier, head of trading and structuring who will head Americas out of New York. In the first week of February, BNP cut around eight soft commodities bankers and traders, most of whom were LatAm focused, in a round of headcount reductions. BNP is implementing a global 5% reduction in corporate and investment banking. UPDATE For daily news of people moves see www.latinfinance.com > 4 LATINFINANCE March/April 2009

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Latin Finance - March/April 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Latin Finance - March/April 2009