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| Best Equity House: Bank of America Merrill Lynch |
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| Also nominated: Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank |
One year ago, investors, bankers and issuers in the equity capital markets were engaged in an intense and unusually public debate about how to fix the broken mechanism for initial public offerings, after so many had failed, been pulled or left investors nursing losses in 2011.
Then the worst thing possible happened. Market risk aversion completely closed the capital markets and a valuable debate petered out. However, not everyone forgot the lessons.
One of the most important was to ensure that investors get an early look at prospective IPO candidates so as to undertake fundamental judgements about their operations, managements and strategy, rather than get sucked into technical price discussions and relative value against comparables that are inherently antagonistic.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch put this into practice in April as joint global coordinator for the €174 million IPO of Brunello Cucinelli, one of the most prestigious players in the luxury apparel and accessory industry.