Blaylock Van L.L.C, Wall Street’s oldest continually operating Black-owned investment banking firm, has gained more success in the last year as more American companies and municipalities recognize the value of doing business with Diverse Business Enterprises (DBE), especially when it comes to Black-owned businesses within the financial services industry.
On Thursday, Blaylock announced that it was one of four exclusively Black-owned financial institutions to syndicate Citi’s $2.5 billion bond issuance, Black News reports. The company was only one of five minority-owned underwriting managers who completed a $14 billion new issue debt transaction with Apple.
Blaylock Van’s billion-dollar deals come as an increasing amount of corporations across the country work to improve diversity and inclusion efforts following the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020. In addition to brokering deals with Citi and Apple, Blaylock Van’s took part in a slate of recent deals with reputable companies including Alphabet, AT&T, Bristol Myers, Comcast, Ford, General Dynamics, IBM, Nasdaq, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Toyota Motor Credit, and Wells Fargo. The historical financial institution also has another big joint venture deal that will be announced in the second quarter.
“To deliver the best in diversified investment banking solutions, it helps to be a diversified company in both service offerings and leadership,” Eric Standifer, CEO and president of Blaylock Van said in a statement. “As the world continues to recover from the events of last year, Blaylock Van remains incredibly proud of our innovative and customized services and strategic insights that have helped companies coast to coast meet and exceed their financial goals.”
Blaylock Van’s success over the last year comes as more companies focus on attracting both institutional and individual investors who also promote diversity. According to Refinitiv, participation by minority-owned firms in underwriting debt of U.S. investment-grade companies reached an all-time high of nearly 30% in 2020. By 2021, the top 10 DBE firms have already underwritten more than $136 billion in new capital market transactions.