Bank of America 2003 Annual Report Download - page 12

Raising the Bar for Large Companies and Institutions
$300 billion
Long recognized as a leader in
the corporate debt markets,
Banc of America Securities
(BAS) ramped up its efforts
in 2003 to become a major player in
equity underwriting and merger and
acquisition advice.
Listening to what our clients said
they wanted from us, we improved our
integrated corporate and investment
banking platform, realigned and
upgraded our talent and increased
our focus on industry specialization.
Our corporate clients rewarded our
efforts by trusting us to manage sev-
eral of the most significant deals on
Wall Street in 2003, including the
largest initial public offering, the sec-
ond-largest convertible deal and two of
the largest announced mergers, both
in the health care arena. In another
intricate and successful transaction
that called on BAS’s full-range of
capabilities, we advised a client on
an acquisition strategy, arranged
additional financial investors, then
managed two rounds of financing
necessary to complete the transaction.
Overall, BAS delivered more than
$300 billion in equity, debt, and
merger and acquisition solutions for
our clients in 2003, which was a record
for the bank. Through this activity,
securities underwriting revenues at
BAS increased during the year by
34%, to $963 million. And investment
banking revenue overall, a figure that
includes underwriting and mergers
and acquisitions advisory fees, gained
13%, to $1.67 billion.
As an integrated investment bank,
BAS is able to provide its clients with
a full complement of debt, equity
and credit products that stand-alone
investment banks cannot match. We
also provide our services in a cus-
tomized way that exactly meets our
clients’ needs. And we have a broad
base of existing clients to draw from,
including relationships with nearly all
of the Fortune 500 companies.
Building on those competitive
advantages, we took steps in 2003 to
enhance both our talent and our inte-
grated approach to client solutions.
We continued to recruit some of the
best financial minds on Wall Street.
And we brought clients the in-depth
industry knowledge they demand by
realigning product specialists along
industry-specific lines. This means
that, regardless of what type of financ-
ing best suits our clients, we can offer
them product specialists with specific
knowledge in their industry.
By combining the highest level
of industry and client knowledge
with the deepest transactional expert-
ise, we continue to be able to offer
our clients innovative, customized
and actionable solutions to meet
all of their financing needs.
Australian and New Zealand
companies have often looked
beyond their shores to seek
out opportunity. Sometimes,
they turn to Bank of America.
Facing limited opportunities
to raise capital at home, and
desiring access to long-term
debt, growing companies in
Australia and New Zealand
have sometimes tapped the
U.S. private placement mar-
ket for hundreds of millions of
dollars at a time. Banc of
America Securities, with
its deep ties to the U.S.
institutional investor
community, has for several
years been the leading
arranger of these U.S. deals
for companies Down Under.
In the last two years,
Banc of America Securities
has gained an even deeper
foothold in this important
niche business through a joint
venture with Westpac, one of
Australia’s four leading banking
companies. Through the
partnership, Banc of America
Securities has gained access
to Westpac’s corporate client
base. And Westpac has been
able to give its corporate
clients, including a leading
paper manufacturer and a real
estate investment company,
access to U.S. private place-
ment borrowings.
In 2003, Banc of America
Securities raised $1.3 billion
in capital for five Australian
companies, a jump of more
than 40% from the previous
year. And the alliance
between the two banking
companies is now expanding
to include U.S. public long-term
debt, known as “Yankee
bonds,” for foreign companies
seeking to raise capital in
the U.S. capital markets.
BANK OF AMERICA 2003 21
Building a Premier
Trading Operation
We invested heavily in our
sales and trading operations
in 2003 to enhance our talent
and infrastructure and to
deepen our relationships
with institutional clients, who
invest in the instruments we
bring to market for issuers.
We provide our institutional
clients with deep liquidity,
fast and anonymous trading
execution, great investment
ideas and valuable intraday
market intelligence at facili-
ties such as our state-of-the-
art trading floor in New York
(left). Trading-related revenue
increased 15% in 2003.
in investment banking solutions for clients
Raising Capital for Companies Down Under
In 2003, we delivered more than
■Our investment banking platform provides a full suite of products unmatched by stand-alone investment banks.
■In 2003, we managed some of the most significant transactions on Wall Street.
■Underwriting revenue increased by 34% in 2003; trading-related revenue was up 15%.
Highlights