Latin Finance - January/February 2012 - 25

being cancelled outright against broader market volatility, though JPMorgan did mange to get some of the better secondary performers past the finish line. The IPO from McDonald’s franchisee Arcos Dorados was perhaps the largest feather in the shop’s cap. The deal marked the region’s biggest SEC-registered IPO since Banco Santander Brasil’s in 2009, and it was one of the rare outperformers at a time when market instability weighed heavily upon the region’s stock markets. While it is tough to beat local Brazilian shops like Itaú BBA in the region’s largest economy, JPMorgan sees itself as the leading ECM bank region-wide. “Outside of Brazil we are number one by far,” says André Maciel, a vice-president in investment banking at JPMorgan. That doesn’t mean that the shop didn’t clinch its fair share of Brazilian mandates as well. JPMorgan acted as an active bookrunner on locally listed and 144/ RegS IPOs such as Sierra Brasil, Brasil Insurance, Autometal, Abril Educação, and CR Pharmaceuticals, while also

leading follow-ons for Colombia’s Grupo Exito and Chile’s E-CL. A US listing for Ternium illustrated JPMorgan’s ability to put together and finally execute complex transactions, even under less than ideal circumstances. The deal involved a follow-on for the sale of a 14.25% stake held by Brazil’s Usiminas and a $250 million private placement of shares to parent Techint. Despite tough market conditions, leads were able to complete what was the largest equity offering from an Argentine company in over 10 years. “Usiminas’s object was to sell everything,” Maciel says “In the end it worked well because the stock price was able to find support and we could exercise the greenshoe in full.”

A Broad Reach

M&A volumes dropped over the last year, but JPMorgan advised on its fair share of completed transactions through the qualifying period and remained within a hair’s breadth of the top position. The shop advised on a broad range

of M&A transactions, reflecting its broad geographical and sector reach. Not only did they illustrate the bank’s ability to bring foreign entities into LatAm, but also to introduce them to foreign targets as well, not to mention ride the trend of intra-regional investment flows. “If you look at our M&A practice we are across the region, not just Brazil and Mexico,” says Moises Mainster, a managing director at JPMorgan, coheading the bank’s LatAm M&A business. “We are across sell-side, buy-side, domestic, cross-border, inbound and outbound. That is where our uniqueness lies.” For instance, it advised on the Hoyts General Cinema South America’s Argentine subsidiary to Cinemark Holdings, acted as financial advisor to Colombia’s Exito on its $746m acquisition of stakes in Casino’s Uruguayan subsidiaries Disco and Devoto, to GE Capital on its disposal of its 49.8% stake in Colombia’s Banco Colpatria, to HJ Heinz on its $618 million purchase of Brazilian

International Reach Regional Expertise
Congratulations to our client Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 S.A., recipient of the Structured Finance Deal of the Year award.
Headquartered in New York, Chadbourne’s strong presence in Latin America, together with our international global offices network, enable us to deliver seamless, world-class legal services on cross-border transactions and matters.

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Latin Finance - January/February 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Latin Finance - January/February 2012
