Awards for Excellence 2020
After years of pullback from emerging markets by big Western banks, only two players can now claim to offer truly comprehensive investment banking coverage in CEE.
Citi has the larger physical network and an increasingly successful M&A franchise, but the standout performer across the product spectrum in the awards period and CEE’s best investment bank is JPMorgan.
In a year that saw a pickup in capital markets deal flow in the region, particularly on the Eurobond side, JPMorgan easily outpaced its global and European rivals by both number and volume of transactions. According to Dealogic, the US bank led more than half of all international bond sales in CEE in the 12 months to March, notching a total allocated volume of $11.6 billion.
These covered the full spectrum of sovereign, corporate, financial, high-grade and high-yield issuers, as well as green bonds for Czech property firm CPI and Russian Railways – a first from the jurisdiction – and a clutch of subordinated notes for banks in Russia, Czech Republic and even Georgia.