Bankrolling Latin America: chase Manhattan's regional chairman has been out in front on more than one controversial call. The net result; capturing regional profits - Strategies

"WE TEND TO VIEW crises as opportunities," says Brian D. O'Neill, chairman of Latin America for Chase Manhattan Bank, in explaining his bank's decision to deepen its commitment in the region at the height of last year's financial turmoil.

Perched in front of dual computer terminals in his office high-rise overlooking midtown Manhattan, the 47-year-old banker relates the way he embraced the opportunity to underwrite a bond for Mexican cement company Cemex last June, less than six months after Brazil's surprise devaluation soured investors on the region.

"I'm sure more than one of our Wall Street competitors raised an eyebrow," says O'Neill of the decision to issue a US$200 million bond during a period of extreme market volatility "They changed their view quickly," he says, after investors eagerly snapped up the issue, causing Chase to increase it by US$50 million. That same month, Chase helped Cemex refinance US$600 million worth of syndicated loans and US commercial paper obligations by creating a lending facility involving participation by 14 banks through an innovative Dutch auction process.

Both transactions were critical events, paving the way for other Latin American companies to access international capital markets later in the year; there had been virtually no new Latin American private-sector financing in the first half of 1999. "While other bankers thought it was too risky and too complicated to do simultaneous transactions during a period of turmoil, Brian welcomed the challenge," says Cemex CFO Rodrigo Trevino. "When times are tough, you appreciate someone like Brian who has the skills and determination to execute complex transactions."

O'Neill joined Chase's credit training program in 1977, fresh out of business school. He selected Chase because he wanted to pursue a career in international finance and Chase was one of the top international money center banks in the US. As luck, or fate, would have it, the California-native was dispatched to Santiago, where he began plying his trade.

While in Chile, O'Neill witnessed first-hand the far-reaching economic reforms introduced by General Augusto Pinochet and his team of University of Chicago-trained economists. These reforms included the privatization of state-owned enterprises, tax reform, trade liberalization and the creation of private pension funds. "I distinctly remember feeling that a number of the reforms being introduced in Chile, particularly the initiative to privatize social security would have applications beyond Chile," recalls O'Neill, who spent 12 years in Santiago and Sao Paulo.

O'Neill returned to New York from Sao Paulo in 1991 as head of corporate finance for Latin America. He continued his climb up Chase's corporate ladder. He was promoted to regional managing director in 1994 and named chairman of Chase Latin America earlier this year. He now oversees Chase's network of investment bankers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.

O'Neill attributes his rise in the industry--and Chase's recent success in Latin America--to a shared philosophy: Stick with clients in good times and bad. "Chase has been there for our Latin American clients in recent years, when many of our competitors were hiding under their desks," he says.

Last year the bank handled more than 20 corporate finance deals in Mexico alone, raising more than US$6.5 billion for blue-chip companies such as Cemex and Pemex, and top-rated banks such as Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival. Chase also led banks in syndicated lending to Latin America for the fifth consecutive year. It capped 1999 by serving as the exclusive financial adviser to Mexican mining company Grupo Mexico on its landmark US$2.25 billion acquisition of Asarco, Inc. Chase also arranged US$1.3 billion worth of syndicated loans to finance the deal.

Chase has picked up in 2000 right where it left off last year. In the first quarter it played an advisory role for nearly US$4 billion worth of Latin mergers and acquisitions, just behind M&A titans Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Goldman Sachs. It also underwrote 11 bonds for Latin governments and blue-chip companies during the first three months of the year.

O'Neill also broke ground this year with two transactions for the World Bank. In February, Chase led a three-year, 1 billion Mexican peso bond, the first time the World Bank has ever issued a bond in any Latin American currency Chase followed on this success with a 55 billion Chilean peso five-year bond for the World Bank in May Looking ahead, O'Neill aims to continue Chase's leadership in syndicated lending by growing its M&A practice, expanding its underwriting activities in Latin markets, and financing the next generation of Latin American "netrepreneurs" through Chase Capital Partners, its private equity arm.

While his goals are ambitious, few question his ability to make them a reality "I have told my politician friends in Washington that Brian would be an extraordinary person to have at the Treasury [Department] or at the State Department to deal with Latin American affairs," says Jose Rohm, chairman of Argentina's Banco General de Negocios. "If he ever decided to take a sabbatical from banking, that is."

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