While its credentials in debt and derivatives, particularly in its European heartland, are beyond doubt, bulge bracket status in equity and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has always eluded Deutsche Bank. In the crucial US market in particular, it has proved difficult to win acceptance in the boardrooms, despite its acquisitions of US banks Alex Brown and Bankers Trust in the late 1990s.
However, a string of recent advisory mandates for corporates such as Qwest Communications International and MetLife, and high-profile roles with the US Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), suggest that the German-domiciled bank's corporate finance business has finally reached a tipping point.
