In investment banking, deals were already becoming harder to do in central and eastern Europe before Russia invaded Ukraine, as interest rates began to creep up in the second half of 2021. Executing deals has since become even harder both because of the war and because of those rate rises.
But CEE’s best investment bank, Citi, has continued to win business in this environment. Although its business in Russia has not proved to be an asset since the start of the war, all the top-tier regional investment banks were active in that market and the breadth of Citi’s geographic strength remains rare – reaching across central and southeast Europe, the Baltics, Turkey and central Asia.
While JPMorgan is competing strongly for regional business, Citi’s dominance of the league tables may well continue thanks to this regional geographic diversity together with its product and sectoral expertise. Citi was the only investment bank with top-three positions across debt and equity capital markets and announced M&A during the period of the awards, according to data from Dealogic.
In the capital markets, Citi’s head of central European investment banking, Marzena Fick, points to acting as joint global coordinator on the €270 million IPO of Grupa Pracuj, the $203 million IPO of Estonia’s Enefit Green and the £203 milion IPO of Eurowag in the Czech Republic as particular highlights. Citi was also financial adviser and placement agent in a $1.5 billion private capital raise for Turkey’s Trendyol. And in the debt capital markets it led deals for the Turkish and Romanian sovereigns and Wizz Air, among others, as well as sustainability deals for Czech Gas Networks, Kuveyt Turk and Uzbekistan.
In M&A, Citi’s work included advising on the acquisition of České Radiokomunikace by Cordiant; Slovenia’s Nova KBM by OTP Bank; Elif Holding by Huhtamaki, in Turkey; and Raiffeisen Bank international’s Bulgarian bank by KBC.
