The Investment Banking area offers advisory services for corporate clients and investors in the structuring of investment bank products, distinguishing itself with a position of leadership and offering creative solutions with excellence in performance. In the fixed income segment, Itaú BBA relies on a dedicated team to provide its clients with a variety of products in the domestic and international markets, including Promissory Notes, Debentures, Commercial Papers, Fixed and Floating Rates Notes, in addition to sophisticated securitization structures like Credit Rights Investment Funds - local acronym FIDCs, and Realty Receivables Certificates - local acronym CRIs, among others. In recent years Itaú BBA has been occupying a position of prominence, having been leader in the domestic market in 2004 with a 25% share of the total volume of issues. For variable income, Itaú BBA offers services for structuring of primary and secondary offerings, IPOs, ADRs, offerings for acquisition and exchange of shares, as well as advisory for the conduction of corporate restructuring processes of publicly-held companies and exchanges of equity participation. The conduction of the transactions is carried out jointly with Itaú Corretora, one of the largest brokerages houses in Brazil, which has strong presence with domestic and international investors and a recognized and awarded independent survey structure. In 2004 Itaú BBA was one of the leading banks in share offerings, ranked third in number of public offerings and first in offerings for acquisition and exchange of shares. With its specialized team, the merger and acquisitions area offers for its clients efficient structures and solutions for advisory, coordination, execution and negotiation of acquisitions, divestments, mergers and corporate restructuring, among others. The area detains broad and privileged access to strategic and financial investors so as to provide advisory for its clients in the enabling of their corporate activities. According to Thomson Finance's merger and acquisitions ranking, based on the volume of transactions carried out in 2004, Itaú BBA was placed fourth.