Latin America's top banks drive $159 billion in deals across 2025 markets
Despite the region's ongoing challenges, Latin America remains attractive to foreign investment, especially in sectors such as renewable energy, technology, and infrastructure.
Foreign investment flows are often spurred by economic reforms, privatization efforts, and regulatory improvements.
BTG Pactual reaffirmed its position as the region's top bank, while Itaú BBA capitalized on the rebound in equities, capturing a commanding market share and leading notable IPOs. And Bradesco BBI excelled in debt issuance, coordinating major corporate debentures and sovereign bonds, while maintaining strong cross-border market engagement.
The following list highlights the firms at the forefront of Latin America's investment banking sector, shaping the region's financial future.
Best Investment Bank
BTG Pactual
The leading Latin American investment bank, BTG Pactual ranked first in M&A with $15 billion in deal volume and led in ECM with $2 billion in deals. In DCM, the Brazilian bank issued more than $159 billion in 2025 alone. Among these transactions was the $2.6 billion merger between BRF (formerly Brasil Foods) and Marfrig, the biggest in the region for the year. On the equities side, the bank acted as lead left coordinator on the 10.5 billion Brazilian real (about $2 billion) capital raise for Cosan, a Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer with operations in energy, oil and gas, agribusiness, and logistics.
M&A
BTG Pactual
It was a year in which industry-specific consolidation trends met still-elevated interest rates in Latin America, and M&A belonged to those who could structure complex deals with top-level execution. Such was the case for BTG Pactual, the No. 1 M&A advisory house in Latin America for yet another year. With more than $15 billion in deal volume in 2025 alone, the Brazilian powerhouse continued to lead in both volume and number of deals.
Among BTG Pactual's key deals was the roughly $4 billion combination of BRF and Marfrig, a landmark transaction in Brazil's food sector. BTG was also the financial adviser to Paper Excellence on the sale of its minority stake in pulp-producer Eldorado Brasil Celulose to J&F Investimentos for 15 billion reais (about $2.8 billion). Beyond BTG's home turf, it played a key part in the take-private of Brazilian-based Serena Energia, valued at roughly $2.8 billion, by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and General Atlantic, where the bank served as the exclusive financial adviser to Serena. The bank also acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Equatorial Energia in the sale of its power-transmission portfolio to Canada's CDPQ for 9.4 billion-reais.
Equities
Itaú BBA
Through a combination of innovation and robust market positioning, Brazilian Itaú BBA took advantage of the rebound in Latin American equities to close the year with a commanding 24% market share in the region's ECM deals-56% of the share in the bank's home market. As follow-ons dominated market growth on the back of improving risk sentiment among corporates and persistently elevated interest rates, the bank managed to structure some of the year's most important deals. Among these deals was the landmark $196 million Aura Minerals IPO, which provided the Florida-based company with the capital structure to deepen its presence in Brazil. Itaú led the 1.2 billion real (about $226 million) Caixa Seguridade secondary offering, allowing the state-backed bank to improve its classification under the Brazilian regulatory framework. Itaú played a role in structuring the roughly $190 million C&A Brasil transaction, in which controlling shareholders sold a 21% stake through a block trade.
Debt
Bradesco BBI
With a mix of domestic and cross-border issuances, Brazil's Bradesco BBI rode the persistent high-interest-rate environment in the region, which prompted corporates to gravitate toward fixed-income instruments with excellent performance. In the domestic market, the bank acted as lead bookrunner on Vale's local debenture issuance, serving as a key coordinator in distributing one of the largest capital raisings in Brazil during the year. Bradesco also led the Ecovias Rio Minas debenture, cited as one of the largest corporate debenture transactions of 2025. In structured credit, Bradesco BBI participated in the CloudWalk FIDC, one of the most significant FIDC offerings of the year, and acted as bookrunner on a 3.1 billion Brazilian real (about $591 million) FIDC issuance in April 2025. Internationally, the bank played a central role in benchmark cross-border bond offerings. Bradesco acted as a bookrunner on Brazil's new 10-year, 2035, dollar-denominated sovereign benchmark bond, raising $2.5 billion, a significant transaction.
