The Mergers & Acquisitions unit continues to be the Spanish leader in financial advice for M&A deals and is also performing well in Latin America. Over the quarter, the most important deals were the following:
- Spain: advice to Saba Infraestructuras on the bidding process for 41 ADIF parking garages and the acquisition of Unipapel by Springwater Capital.
- Latin America: advice in Mexico to Banco del Bajío y Afirme on the transfer of its Afore Afirme-Bajío portfolio to Profuturo. Advice in Peru to Enagas on the acquisition of a 20% stake in TgP. This is the second most important investment in history carried out by a Spanish company in Peru.
With respect to Equity Capital Markets, the primary equity market has reactivated in developed countries in terms of volume of issuance. BBVA has participated in the following operations in the quarter:
- Spain: it has acted as joint bookrunner in the ACS bond convertible into Iberdrola shares and as co-lead manager in Acciona’s convertible bond issue. BBVA has been the agent bank in Repsol’s scrip dividend.
- Portugal: BBVA has acted as co-lead manager in the IPO of Espirito Santo Saude.
- The United States: BBVA has participated as co-manager in the IPO of EP Energy.
In Corporate Lending, BBVA has continued to head the rankings of syndicated loans in Spain and collaborating in different operations with various top tier companies in the rest of geographical regions were the Group is present.
The highlights in Project Finance transactions in the quarter have been:
- Spain and Portugal: renewal of the debt of Redexis (formerly Endesa Gas), with a hybrid scheme of banking loans and financing via bonds.
- Latin America: headed up the El Retiro wind farm, Veracruz Shopping Mall projects and the bond for the Itxapan La Sal-Tenango highway, all of them in Mexico.
- The United States: agreement with Sempra on the Copper Mountain Solar 3 project, in which BBVA has acted as MLA.
The highlights in the quarter in the Global Transaction Banking unit are summed up below:
- With respect to new products and services, the following highlights are related to online banking and mobile banking: SWIFT messaging in Venezuela, integration of DVP (delivery versus payments) in Chile, International ACH Transaction (the new Securities and Exchange Commission standard in the United States for transfers) and Lockbox (integrated invoice collection) in the United States and the single SIT format (integrated treasury system) in Mexico.
- Awards received: “Deals of the Year” from the magazine Trade Finance and “Best Deal” from Global Trade Review magazine.
The highlights in the quarter in Global Markets were:
- Strength and solidity in gross income, which totaled €406m (up 16.3% year-on-year), thanks to the excellent performance of customer revenue. By geographical areas, the good performance of revenue in Spain (up 26.0% year-on-year, the United States (up 58.8%) and South America (up 41.7%).
- Very favorable behavior of business with the institutional segment, firmly based on the interest rate and equity businesses in Europe.
- Leadership in equity brokerage activity on the Spanish Stock Exchange Market, with a market share of 9% in the first quarter of 2014.
- BBVA has acted as bookrunner in the biggest issue ever in history by the Spanish Treasury, at a nominal amount of €10 billion. In addition, BBVA has led debt issues by Telefónica, Enagás, ICO and the Autonomous Region of Madrid.
- Finally, BBVA has been recognized as “Best Investment Bank in Spain” by the specialist magazine Global Finance.
