Citi wins this award in part because it was so successful in securing a role for itself in the region’s big Spac deals. The US bank completed 11 M&A transactions in the year to the end of March 2021, worth a total of $53.3 billion, according to Dealogic data, for a 37% market share.
It was financial adviser and capital markets adviser to FinTech Acquisition Corp V in its $10.4 billion merger with Israel-based social trading platform eToro Group. And the bank carved out a key role as sole financial adviser to Lucid Motors, when the luxury electric vehicle maker, owned by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, merged with Churchill Capital Corp IV, a New York-listed Spac, in a deal worth $24 billion.
For the region to wean itself off a long-standing dependence on oil and gas, it needs good financial advice and strong and steady flows of capital from global investors, and this is where Citi comes in. It advised Ontario Teachers on its co-investment in Adnoc Gas Pipeline Assets, a division of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The deal was significant not just because of its size, at $21 billion, but because it marked the first foray into the region by Canada’s largest single-profession pension plan. It’s the kind of deal the region needs more of as it seeks to transform itself into a diversified economy with end-to-end supply chains.
But not all capital flows are one directional. The region has a lot of money it needs to put to work in stable, income-generating assets and to this end, a key deal last year was the acquisition by PIF of a 2.23% stake in Jio Platforms for $1.5 billion. That marked its first corporate investment in India and it was a good deal all round.
Reliance Industries was keen to pay off a big chunk of its net debt and it offered the Saudi-based fund a chance to buy into one of the subcontinent’s largest and fastest-growing diversified digital corporations, with Jio well-placed to drive India’s transition to a digital-led economy. Citi advised PIF.
Hamza Girach is Citi’s head of Middle East investment banking.
