Whether it be Telefonica’s $9.8 billion acquisition of Brasilcel and Vivo from Portugal Telecom, VimpelCom’s $24 billion purchase of Wind and Orascom from Weather Investments or Qatar Holding’s $2.3 billion purchase of Harrods, Credit Suisse has demonstrated a breadth of business in emerging markets M&A that few can match.
The bank combines sector expertise with market knowledge – and with a presence in 50 emerging countries that local know-how is a lot greater than at many other firms.
The Swiss lender ticks the boxes for all sub-sets of emerging markets M&A too: pure domestic deals, emerging markets-to-emerging markets, inbound into emerging markets from the developed markets, and outbound from emerging markets to the industrialized world.
In 2010 the main M&A trends were domestic consolidation and emerging markets-to-emerging markets deals. This year the big theme is developed-market companies buying in emerging economies.
What marks Credit Suisse out has been its ability to identify these trends early.