Banc of America Securities has won its first mergers and acquisitions mandate from Yahoo, the internet search engine, advising on yesterday's $1bn (€804m) acquisition of a 40% stake in Alibaba.com, the Chinese internet company.

The US bank was co-manager of Yahoo's initial public offering in 1999, which was led by Goldman Sachs, but until yesterday it had not advised on any M&A deals according to Dealogic, the investment banking research provider.