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The winners
Latin America’s investment banking giants of 2025, record M&A deals, rising equity offerings, and historic debt transactions.
Despite the region’s ongoing challenges, Latin America continues to attract foreign investment, especially in sectors such as renewable energy, technology, and infrastructure.
Foreign investment flows are often stimulated by economic reforms, privatization efforts, and regulatory developments.
BTG Pactual reaffirmed its position as the region’s top bank, while Itaú BBA capitalized on the share capital increase, holding a commanding market share and leading notable IPOs. And Bradesco BBI excels in debt issuance, coordinating large corporate deals and private bonds, while maintaining strong cross-border market engagement.
The following list highlights the leading investment banking firms in Latin America, shaping the region’s financial future.
The Best Investment Bank
BTG Pactual
Latin America’s leading investment bank, BTG Pactual ranked first in M&A with a deal value of $15 billion and led in ECM with $2 billion in deals. In DCM, the Brazilian bank has released more than 159 billion dollars in 2025 alone. Among these transactions was the $2.6 billion merger between BRF (formerly Brasil Foods) and Marfrig, the largest in the region for the year. On the equity side, the bank acted as the lead left-hand consultant on a 10.5 billion Brazilian real (about $2 billion) capital raising for Cosan, a Brazilian sugar producer and power ethanol, oil and gas, agribusiness, and transportation business.
M&A
BTG Pactual
It was a year when sector-specific merger trends met with high interest rates in Latin America, and M&A belonged to those who could structure complex deals with high-level performance. Such was the case with BTG Pactual, the No. 1 M&A advisory house. 1 in Latin America for another year. With more than 15 billion dollars in deal volume by 2025 alone, the Brazilian powerhouse continued to lead in both volume and number of deals.
Among BTG Pactual’s most important deals was the estimated $4 billion combination of BRF and Marfrig, a landmark transaction in Brazil’s food sector. BTG is also financial advisor to Paper Excellence in 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 domestic territory, it played a key role in the takeover of Brazil-based Serena Energia, valued at around $2.8 billion, by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and General Atlantic, where the bank acted as Serena’s special financial advisor. The bank also acted as exclusive financial advisor to Equatorial Energia in the sale of its power transmission portfolio to Canada’s CDPQ for $9.4 billion.
Assignments
BBA
With a combination of innovation and a strong market position, Itaú BBA Brazil took advantage of Latin America’s rebound.
Debt
Bradesco BBI
With a mix of domestic and cross-border issuance, Brazil’s Bradesco BBI is riding the continued high interest rate environment in the region, which has encouraged companies to turn to high-performing fixed income instruments. In the domestic market, the bank acted as the lead producer in the issuance of Vale’s local debt, acting as a key intermediary in the distribution of one of the largest funds in Brazil during the year. Bradesco also led the debenture of Ecovias Rio Minas, identified as one of the company’s largest debenture transactions of 2025. With structured credit, Bradesco BBI participated in the CloudWalk FIDC, one of the most important contributions of the FIDC of the year, and acted as underwriter for the 3.1 million of the 5 billion of April of the real FIDC of the Brazilian 5 2025. Internationally, the bank played an important role in the benchmarking of cross-border bonds. Bradesco acted as underwriter for Brazil’s new 10-year, 2035, dollar-denominated bond, which raised $2.5 billion, a significant transaction.
