To be the best investment bank in the fastest growing continent you can’t just be here or there, you must be everywhere.
What Citi has achieved over a number of years – building strength in core Asia markets, adding key talent judiciously and being on hand to serve clients at every stage of their life cycle – is highly impressive. Citi has strong roots in Asia, and while it looks back in search of lessons to learn, it also looks forward in search of new opportunities.
AfE 2024
The bank’s geographic reach is unparalleled and its calling card is a simple one: it can meet a client’s needs in any market, be it Japan or China, Australia or India.
The data supports this view. In a poor year for regional and global equity capital markets, M&A and debt capital markets took up the strain. In Asia-Pacific G3 DCM, Citi topped the rankings with room to spare, bookrunning $135 billion in bonds in challenging markets. In Asia ex-Japan equity and equity-linked, it again beat its rivals with ease, completing $18 billion worth of transactions over the awards period, according to data from Dealogic.
Elsewhere, Citi was one of a handful of firms to complete more than $111 billion worth of completed Asia M&A transactions in 2023, according to Dealogic. Its regional bench strength was palpable here: it ranked first in South Korea in M&A in the awards period, second in southeast Asia and Greater China, and third in India.
“In Korea and Taiwan, we are positioned as the number-one franchise,” says Jan Metzger, Asia-Pacific head of investment banking at Citi. “In Australia, we’re on the right trajectory. In India, we’re consistently top-three… In Asean, where we’ve been present for decades, we are very well positioned to be the leading investment banking franchise.”
And while China has been quiet, the bank is still exceptionally well placed to benefit from an uptick in trade and deal flow. Citi banks 70% of Fortune 500 firms and hundreds of large local corporates and commercial bank clients in the People’s Republic.
“The potential for IBD activity, as these companies grow, is massive,” adds Metzger.
Many of the deals were eye-catching not just in terms of size but also innovation. In September 2023, Citi was joint global coordinator on the South Korean sovereign’s inaugural samurai offering, a 10-year, yen-denominated, triple-tranche bond offering worth ¥70 billion ($475 million).
Two months later, the US bank was joint bookrunner on an inaugural $1 billion sukuk by the Republic of the Philippines. The 5.5-year RegS/144A sale of notes generated $3.8 billion in total orders. Another notable offering saw the Export-Import Bank of Korea finalize an inaugural $3.5 billion blue bond in January 2023. Citi was joint bookrunner on the sale.
In mergers and acquisitions, a host of deals stand out. In June 2023, Citi advised Abu Dhabi investment firm CYVN Holdings on its $1.1 billion acquisition of a 7% stake in Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio. The deal opens new opportunities for the Chinese firm as it looks to push into new markets, and for CYVN as it scours the world for investable assets. Citi also played a key role on the $19.2 billion demerger of Reliance Industries’ financial services businesses into Jio Financial Services.
ECM had a poor year, but Citi was a commanding presence on many of the landmark deals. It was a joint bookrunner on the $638 million IPO of India’s Cube Highways Trust in April 2023 and joint global coordinator on the $672 million initial stock offering of Indonesia’s Trimegah Bangun Persada. It was also joint global coordinator on WuXi XDC’s Hong Kong IPO, which raised $521 million in November 2023.
Citi has strong roots in Asia, and while it looks back in search of lessons to learn, it also looks forward in search of new opportunities
Citi led jumbo financing facilities for the likes of India’s Reliance Industries and SMBC Aviation, and a $1.2 billion debt financing to support Orora’s acquisition of Saverglass.
And the bank was also at the forefront of sustainable finance in Asia during the awards period. Citi completed 44 sustainable bonds in 2023 with a total value of $4.9 billion, according to Dealogic.
Among the key deals were a $450 million sustainability-linked loan (SLL) for Zhen Ding Technology – a global first in the printed circuit board space – and a $150 million SLL for Hong Kong-listed dry bulk shipping firm Pacific Basin in December 2023.
“If you look across our franchise, you will see that we are the number-one investment bank in most of the Asian markets,” says Metzger. “You see proof of what the team has been doing for the last decade or so with the size and type of deals we have led across Asia.
“We have a model for all seasons, supported by a well-diversified business by product and geography,” he adds.