The journey across the desert has been a long one, with a worrying period of low activity in the first months of the year in corporate transactions (M&A) in Spain, largely due to the uncertainty generated by Trump. The good news is that in recent weeks there has been a flurry of announcements, which JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas took advantage of, three great classics of investment banking, which, with almost 100,000 million together, more than tripled the amount for the same period in 2024.
According to Dealogic data, JP Morgan, chaired in Spain by Ignacio de la Colina, intervened in transactions valued at 37,460 million euros; Goldman Sachs, whose CEO in Spain and Portugal is Juande Gómez-Villalba, participated in operations worth 36,413 million; and BNP Paribas CIB in Spain, with Luis Sancho as CEO offers of 24,162 million. The total amount of these three giants currently amounts to 98,000 million euros, triple compared to the same month last year.
This ranking takes shape at the same time as activity has accelerated thanks to the announcement in recent weeks of three major transactions: Orange’s purchase of 50% of MásOrange, the sale of 27% of Air Europa to Turkish Airlines and Cinven’s acquisition of Alfonso X University.
Thus, with less than a month and a half to go until the end of the year, the volume of operations in Spain reaches 58.4 billion euros, 40% more than last year, according to Mergermarket, the specialized M&A division of the consultancy firm Ion Analytics. Rupert Cocke, an expert at the company, points the finger at July’s improvement: “If these levels are exceeded, it could be the best half-year result since the first half of 2018,” he explains via email. It’s true that large deals have been announced, but the total number is down, down 12%, to 2,617 between January and October, according to data from TTR Data. This reveals, according to the experts interviewed, a certain slowdown in small and medium-sized operations.
The transfer of the advised amount to the income that will appear in the consultants’ income statements, which are usually not recorded until the transaction is closed, still remains to be verified. The data reveals the positive evolution of the sector and is a clue to the commissions that the investment bank will earn, but includes any operation in which it participated, even if with a minor role. Therefore, only the sum of the trade amounts of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas exceeds the total offered by Mergermarket, as the same trade is computed multiple times when multiple advisors are involved.
Ignacio de la Colina, president of JP Morgan Spain, underlines that “after a start to the year with greater uncertainty, markets and issuers have gained confidence, allowing the successful completion of important operations, supported by stock markets at historic highs and financial margins at their lowest”. “This market situation has spurred activity across all sectors: equities, debt and M&A. JP Morgan has been present in major market transactions, due to its size, complexity and strategic importance,” he adds.
The American bank participated in the creation of the alliance between ACS and BlackRock in data centers, in the sale of Telefónica subsidiaries in Argentina and Colombia, in the sale of half of MasOrange funds to Orange, in the sale of the Parques Reunidos business in the United States by EQT, in the acquisition of Aedas by Neinor, as advisor to Nido Living in the purchase of Brookfield’s student housing portfolio and also in Advent in the sale of the Donte Group to OTPP, among other operations.
Goldman Sachs intervened in Iberdrola’s sale of Santander Polonia, TSB and 50% of East Anglia 3 to Masdar. Juande Gómez-Villalba, CEO of Goldman Sachs in Spain, explains that “so far this year more than 10 transactions have been carried out with a volume of over 2.5 billion dollars; Goldman Sachs has participated in the most relevant transactions”. “With respect to the operations carried out by the funds of private capitalthe Iberian market has seen strong activity so far this year, with Goldman Sachs advising on major transactions, including UAX, Adevinta, Tendam, MasOrange and Aedas,” he adds.
Luis Choya, Head of M&A BNP Paribas Iberia, assures that there has been “an acceleration of operations in the second half of the year, with a lot of appetite from international investors for Spanish assets thanks to the excellent growth prospects and the quality of the companies”. “We have carried out very significant transactions in the telecommunications, energy, infrastructure and transport, education and insurance sectors. We see one positive thing pipeline of operations for next year,” he assures.
The bank of French origin has been in MasOrange twice, as advisor in the sale of a minority stake to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, in the fiber company it controls together with Vodafone, and in the sale of the funds to Orange. He piloted the sale of Educare to SwissLife, the transfer of wind assets from Acciona to OPDEnergy, assisted GCO in the acquisition of Inoc, participated in the purchase of the Italian tugboat company Rimorchiatori and in the purchase operation of Turkish Airlines in Air Europa.
