Awards for Excellence country winners: Argentina

Welcome to the optimistic part of the cycle for Argentina: international investment banks re-rate the outlook for the small cohort of large, listed banks and those banks start to look to consolidate. The last cycle saw equity issuance, but the banks had barely topped up the funds in their M&A war chests before the optimism faded away alongside their newly positive book values.

This time the optimism of a new president with promises of liberal market economic reform has been turbocharged and we have already seen banking M&A take place – Banco Macro leading the way with its acquisition of Banco Itaú. This first-mover status is a large part of the reason that Macro wins the award for Argentina’s best bank – boosting its profits, profile and outlook in one very reasonably priced deal.