Brazilian Banks

BTG Pactual, led by Brazilian billionaire Andre Esteves, won the largest portion of investment-banking fees in Latin America last year, 8.1 percent, up from 6.2 percent in 2011, according to Freeman. Credit Suisse, still the region’s top fee earner over the past eight years, had the biggest market-share decline in that period, dropping to 6.4 percent in 2012. The figure was as high as 14.1 percent in 2007, the data show.

BTG, Brazil’s largest stock underwriter, said in November that investment-banking revenue increased 59 percent to 148 million reais ($75 million) in the third quarter from a year earlier. The company went public in April, selling shares in Sao Paulo, where it’s based, and Amsterdam.

The firm, along with Itau BBA, Banco Bradesco SA and Rothschild, worked with Cosan SA Industria & Comercio last year in the purchase of a $1.8 billion stake in Brazilian gas distributor Cia. de Gas de Sao Paulo, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Platinum Underwriting

Brad Webber, co-head of Africa corporate finance at Johannesburg-based Standard Bank Group Ltd., said companies increasingly are using local firms along with international banks to provide advice on transactions. He cited Standard Bank’s joint book-runner and underwriting role with JPMorgan, Citigroup and HSBC in an $817 million rights issue last year by Lonmin Plc, the London-based platinum producer.

“In the past, a large equity-capital markets deal might have only involved bulge-bracket banks from the U.K. or U.S.,” Webber said. “It is now rare to see only these banks on a trade. More often than not you will see at least one local bank on the deal.”

Citic, China’s largest brokerage by market value, agreed to buy CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, the Hong Kong-based securities unit of France’s Credit Agricole SA, for $1.25 billion last year, joining banks across Asia in acquiring assets from troubled European firms. Citic generated most of its fees in 2012 from equity issuance and bond sales, the Freeman data show.

Citic Share

Citic, founded in 1995 and controlled by state-owned Citic Group Corp., grabbed the biggest share of investment-banking fees in China last year, 8.5 percent, up from 4.6 percent in 2011 and 0.3 percent in 2005, according to Freeman. Morgan Stanley, based in New York, had the biggest decline since 2005 to 1.3 percent in 2012 from 11.8 percent.