Only weeks after Financial News named Merrill Lynch European Investment Bank of the Year, International Financing Review and other industry publications have also honored the firm.

IFR named Merrill Lynch Financial Bond House, European CDO House and Asian Structured Equity House, and also cited the firm’s performance in completing transactions for Fortis, a financial services company in Belgium, and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, among others.

In IFR’s annual review, the magazine awarded Merrill Lynch 2007 Financial Bond House of the Year, attributing the firm’s success to a dedicated team from the Financial Institutions Group (FIG). The FIG team had an extremely successful year in 2007, rising above volatile markets and adverse conditions, the magazine said.

IFR reported that Merrill Lynch has integrated its advisory and financing businesses on a global basis and has combined its debt and equity origination platform, an effective construct that might possibly be unique to Merrill Lynch.

“The move aims to bring the DNA of the extremely successful equity and equity-linked operation to bear on the whole FIG team, and to absorb all forms of financing,” IFR said. It is the 3rd year in a row the firm has won the award.

The magazine also cited the firm’s diversified approach as the deciding factor in winning the European CDO award. “In contrast to many other houses, Merrill excels in both cash and synthetic offerings,” IFR said.

Naming Merrill Lynch the Asian Structured Equity House of the Year, IFR noted that there are many ways to build a strong structured equity house, including the agency route, which the magazine said is favored by many but is not a path that Merrill Lynch has taken. “The Merrill model is investment banking-led,” IFR said. The approach “gives the bank traction with investors, and sets itself up for repeat business from these issuers,” the magazine said.

The IFR accolades are only the latest this month. Merrill Lynch was also cited by Financial Times and Mergermarket, Acquisitions Monthly and FinanceAsia.

Financial Times and Mergermarket named Merrill Lynch the Financial Advisor of the Year. Recognizing Merrill Lynch’s work on the ABN AMRO deal, the publication awarded Merrill Lynch the Financial Advisor of the Year award for the Benelux region.

Merrill Lynch was also recently named Corporate Broker of the Year by Acquisitions Monthly.

The award serves as another indication of how the Corporate Brokerage franchise continues to be a point of distinction in the eyes of the firm’s clients. In another powerful display of performance excellence, Acquisitions Monthly recognized the firm’s leading role in the ABN-AMRO transaction with the Cross Border Deal of the Year award.

The honor roll of end-of-the-year awards and accolades continued, with FinanceAsia citing Merrill Lynch in the following areas:

• Best Private Equity Deal -- MBK’s $1.4 billion takeover of China Network Systems.
• Best Secondary Offering -- ICICI’s $4.6 billion simultaneous follow-on of ADRs and domestic shares.
• Best Investment Grade Bond -- ICICI's $2 billion offering.
• Best Indonesia Deal -- PT Ithabi Bara Utama $135 million structured equity-linked notes.
• Best Korea Deal -- Samsung Card’s $620 million IPO.
• Best Pakistan Deal -- United Bank’s $650 million GDR.