Headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, Espírito Santo Investment is the investment banking arm of Banco Espírito Santo, the biggest listed private bank by market cap and the second largest financial Group in Portugal.
Being part of a 140-year old banking group, Espírito Santo Investment business’ ethos is driven by developing long-term relationships with its clients, whose needs are serviced through multi-product platforms with sector / industry and geographic coverage. The bank is directly present in three continents, offering innovative financial solutions in Europe (Iberian Peninsula, UK and Poland), in the Americas (Brazil and US) and in Africa (namely Angola).
Nowadays Espírito Santo Investment has an unrivalled leadership reputation in the Iberian investment banking market along all product lines, namely in Corporate Finance and M&A, Project Finance and Securitisation, Acquisition Finance, Capital Markets and Private Equity activities.
Thus, unsurprisingly, Espírito Santo Investment is present in almost every transaction that occurs in Portugal.
Recently the bank acted as a lead manager for the Republic’s 10-year Ä3bn benchmark bond. The success of this transaction, which generated total demand of more than Ä13bn, was not just instrumental in shoring the confidence in the European bond market, but it also re-emphasised investors’ long-term belief in the strength of the Portuguese economy. And the M&A, Project Finance and Structured Finance Portuguese divisions are also the undisputed market leaders, participating in almost of the major transactions occurred recently.
International presence
True to its Portuguese roots, the Espírito Santo Group has always been internationally-minded, a trend that Espírito Santo Investment has furthered. Prompted by constraints on domestic growth and by the unrelenting globalisation of the Portuguese economy, the bank is building an international network able to give its clients access to capital-exporting markets. Today Espírito Santo Investment is the only truly Portuguese internationally-minded investment bank, with a presence that already spans, besides neighbouring Spain, the UK, Poland, the US, Brazil and Angola. This footprint, that largely matches the origin of the main trading partners of our core clients, is now being expanded to give added focus to investment banking activities.
Thus, recently, the bank expanded its presence in the global investment banking market and in February announced that it was acquiring a 50.1 percent holding of broker Execution Noble. Headquartered in London, Execution Noble is an EMEA securities firm focused on large and mid-cap companies, with an established distribution platform across London, New York and Hong Kong. The synergies between Espírito Santo Investment and Execution Noble in the equities business are compelling, allowing leveraging the consolidated expertise in Latin America and building a broader emerging market operation.
Equities and fixed income distribution are one part of Espírito Santo Investment’s strategy for its investment banking business. A second key growth area is M&A, where opportunities will continue to re-emerge as the global economic recovery gathers pace and where the increasing activity in cross-border M&A between Iberia, the US and Latin America is becoming a reality, and Espírito Santo Investment is prepared to be a prominent player in this area.
Leveraging expertise
Project and acquisition finance are also two areas where Espírito Santo Investment credentials are global, and our expertise in infrastructure, renewable energy and transportation finance is unrivalled. Thus, in recent years the Bank has consistently been awarded with the best annual deals winnings for projects that cover the whole world.
This is a trend that will only increase, because there are a growing number of financing opportunities related with public-private partnerships for key infrastructure projects less dependent on global growth, and to which our strong emerging markets presence gives the bank full access to what we believe will be a very strong deal flow. A case in point is Angola, a country that has been enjoying a strong economic renaissance since the end of the war in 2002.
Supported by a very successful commercial banking operation in Angola, the process of Espírito Santo Investment setting in Luanda a direct presence is already under way, and it this will be a key instrument in channelling specialised finance African projects.
