As a global bank with a wide footprint, Citi’s importance rose in 2024 as clients turned to the US firm to help them navigate rising geopolitics tensions, a volatile rates environment and a much more complex macroeconomic backdrop. Citi rose to the occasion, seeing strong deal flow across all asset classes, and finding ways to add value in high-profile cross-border transactions.
While its prowess in ECM, syndicated loans and M&A markets all came to the fore in 2024, Citi takes the Euromoney award for its debt capital market credentials and its ability to turn difficult financing conversations into opportunities.
Take Asia’s high yield market, which has been volatile in recent years. In 2024, Citi snapped up some key mandates.
It was a global coordinator on an $800 million 144A/Reg S bond for India’s Biocon Biologics – the first biopharma issuance from Asia and the largest inaugural high yield dollar bond from India in 10 years.
Another marquee client was minerals and power company Vedanta Resources. Citi was a global coordinator on all three of Vedanta’s bonds last year: a $900 million outing in September, as well as its $300 million deal in October and its $800 million bond in late November. The deal flurry came after significant developments at the company, including ratings upgrades, a new equity raise, improved financial performance and a favourable commodities price cycle.
“Taking a triple-C rated company and helping it turn around is not just a fluke or a one-off,” says Rishi Jalan, Citi’s head of Asia debt syndicate. “There was a lot of thought that went behind it and showed how we correctly advise clients to go to market at the right time and help them manage their maturity profile.”
Citi didn’t just always use the same playbook for repeat clients. It also looked out of the box
Consistency has long been a hallmark of Citi’s DCM franchise. This was on show in 2024, too, with the bank working with many repeat clients, including BOC Aviation, Republic of Indonesia, Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of India.
But Citi didn’t just always use the same playbook for repeat clients. It also looked out of the box.
For KDB’s $3 billion February 2024 trade, Citi decided to run the deal through its SSA desk, in a bid to capitalise on demand among central banks, sovereign wealth funds and official institutions. That move opened a new investor base for KDB and helped it get tight pricing.
Citi also helmed other important deals, including technology major Alibaba Group’s $5 billion dollar-equivalent and offshore renminbi outing; LG Energy Solutions’ $2 billion multi-tranche trade; and CSL’s $1.25 billion dual-tranche offering aimed at repricing its curve and extending its debt maturity. In all these cases, client objectives were met despite tricky market conditions.
Importantly, Citi managed to find its way back into transactions it had missed out on the previous year. This was demonstrated by its August 2024 bookrunner role in Khazanah Nasional’s $1 billion sukuk-plus-conventional bond – a deal that generated healthy revenues.
Little surprise then that Citi was top of Dealogic’s Asia Pacific ex-Japan G3 DCM revenue league table in 2024, with $77 million in revenues, and led the Asia ex-Japan international G3 bookrunner league table by volume. Citi also ranked first in Dealogic’s league tables on DCM revenues in southeast Asia, cementing its leadership.