Best bank - Banco Popular
Best debt house - Barclays Capital
Best equity house - Morgan Stanley
Best M&A house - Morgan Stanley
Best local partner - Invercaixa
Banco Popular is again best bank in Spain as the largest players - BBVA and SCH - continue with their restructuring plans in the wake of management changes last year. Popular continues to be the first choice with small and mid-cap companies and is building on the market share it acquired last year. In retail banking its strategy is based on cross-selling and it prides itself on providing an advisory service to customers, using a sophisticated relationship management system, rather than blindly selling products to them. Its cross-selling effort has been particularly effective in small and medium-size enterprises, which constitute a profitable sector of corporate Spain for Popular. It has arranged financing this year for among others property developer Bami, which raised e550 million, and SOS Cuetara, which borrowed e196 million.
Spain is an important market for Barclays. Look no further than its planned acquisition of Banco Zaragozano for the proof. But Barclays Capital has also been providing debt finance to Spanish institutions since opening offices there in 2000.