‘Being there’ is one of Citi’s many skills. It is always there for clients: underwriting stock offerings, printing bonds and taking the lead on bridge loans to support complex acquisitions.
AfE 2024
Citi again had another stellar year in what was a tough one for investment banks in Asia. The equity capital markets were generally weak in Asia, yet Citi always managed to be there when it mattered. In October 2023, it was sole global coordinator on a $805 million concurrent convertible bond and global depositary receipt offering for Taiwan Cement; the deal marked the first green convertible issue in Taiwan. Citi was green structuring agent on a transaction that helps the firm meet its net-zero commitments.
The bank helped a host of other clients to raise capital on the primary markets. The list of IPOs it completed in 2023 included: Trimegah Bangun Persada in Indonesia ($672 million raised); Cube Highways Trust in India ($638 million); and Kelun Biotech in Hong Kong ($200 million).
Citi was also a leader in follow-ons. It was sole bookrunner on a $293 million block trade by Singapore’s Temasek – the largest secondary block in southeast Asia in three years – and lead left and sole global coordinator on PharmaEssentia’s $463 million sale of global depositary receipts, the largest overseas offering by a Taiwan healthcare firm.
The debt capital markets took up a lot of the strain in 2023. Citi extended its lead in the space in 2023, bookrunning $135 billion worth of Asia-Pacific G3 bonds in challenging market conditions. It ranked number one in G3 DCM in Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Japan, and topped Asia-Pacific G3 financial institutions and Asia-Pacific corporate debt. In Asia ex-Japan equity and equity-linked, the US bank again beat the field with ease, completing $18 billion worth of transactions over the 12-month period.
“When you look across our client roster in DCM last year, in many of the key measures – Asia Pacific G3 bonds, 144As, in sustainable finance, offerings for financial institutions – we were right at the top of the league tables,” says Adrian Khoo, head of Asia bonds at Citi. “We were extremely busy in key markets such as Australia, Korea, India.”
Standout deals in the debt space include a $1 billion debut sukuk for the Republic of the Philippines, completed in November amid high demand. In January 2023, Citi served as leading joint global coordinator and sustainability structuring adviser on Sunny Optical’s inaugural 3.5-year sustainability-linked bond (SLB) offering, raising $400 million – the first offshore SLB issued by a Chinese corporate.
Citi is always there for clients: underwriting stock offerings, printing bonds and taking the lead on bridge loans to support complex acquisitions
Citi also led a host of jumbo financing facilities for clients such as India’s Reliance Industries and SMBC Aviation and helped to raise $1.2 billion in debt financing to support Orora’s acquisition of French glass bottle maker Saverglass.
Another key transaction saw South Korea’s LG Chem raise $2 billion in exchangeable bonds – the largest ever completed in Asia – with the capital used to finance new products, including battery-related materials.
“We structured it as a dual-tranche transaction, enabling the company to avoid having to make a repayment in the same year,” says Rob Chan, Citi’s Asia-Pacific head of equity-linked origination. “And there was incredible demand: $10 billion of demand on an overnight basis.”
In loans and advisory, Citi again led the charge. A standout deal that reinforced the power of its global platform and reach saw it act as sole global loan coordinator and financial adviser on $800 million worth of credit facilities for Resorts World Las Vegas. The deal enabled the Genting Group-owned resort and casino company to trim costs and establish a stable capital structure.