Citing its excellence in strategy and performance and a renewed vigor, The Banker magazine has awarded Merrill Lynch four top honors, including Global Investment Bank of 2005.

In the magazine's September issue and in an award ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London, Merrill Lynch also received awards as Equity House of the Year in the Americas and, for the global Financial Institutions Group, House of the Year in Europe and the Americas.

The magazine said Merrill Lynch’s second-quarter earnings in 2005 outshone its many competitors’ shrinking corporate and investment banking revenues. The Banker, after weighing the performance of investment banks in a record 138 countries, cited Merrill Lynch for its “ability to build and regenerate the business while keeping a sharp eye on profitability.”

Greg Fleming, president of Global Markets & Investment Banking, told the magazine that the firm has focused on consolidating positions in traditional businesses, such as advisory, debt and equity underwriting, along with secondary cash equity trading, while building strength in new capabilities, including principal investing, private equity, real estate, derivatives and commodities.

“We have built our footprint back out across industries, regions and products,” Fleming said.

In awarding ML the Bank of the Year citation, The Banker said ML’s focus on profitability has not prevented it from growing and strengthening targeted areas, such as leveraged finance. The magazine, a monthly publication of the Financial Times, noted that ML’s ranking in the high yield business has jumped from 12th several years ago, to sixth today.

“In recognizing the Financial Institutions Group’s (FIG) work in Europe, The Banker said it was impressed with the group’s strategic thinking about structure and organization. “Its ability to deal with all the complexities intrinsic in organizational change and produce an integrated FIG platform show a willingness to adopt radical thinking,” the magazine said.

The Banker also applauded FIG’s work in the Americas, saying its “orientation showed the market the way forward during a period when major cross-border deals surfaced.”

“Merrill Lynch has long used a cross-border model for its FIG strategy and now that is paying off,” Andrea Orcel, co-head of EMEA GMI and global head of FIG, told The Banker. “We are closer to clients, we are getting in earlier on the deals and we are able to use our innovative product range to satisfy them.”

The Banker said “quality underwriting and much-praised trading capacity” ensured that ML received this year’s award for Equity House of the Year for the Americas. It noted that ML bookran 39 initial public offerings last year, more than any other bank, including eight of the largest IPOs in the United States and the four largest offerings in Canada.

The magazine said ML’s “trophy deal” was its work in helping insurance giant St. Paul Travelers Inc. sell its 78 percent stake in Nuveen Investments Inc., a provider of investment services. St. Paul sold 39.3 million shares for $1.9 billion in the April transaction.

The Banker noted that the deal was the largest of the eight concurrent equity and equity-linked issues of the year, as well as the largest ever equity offering in the asset management industry.

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