Awards for Excellence 2019
|
|
With Russian markets reeling from a fresh bout of sanctions and Turkey suffering extreme currency volatility, investment bankers in CEE were on the back foot last year. As the flow of larger deals slowed to a trickle, the small group of global players still focused on the region struggled to find a market for their services.
The only firm that demonstrated consistent strength across investment banking products, comprehensive regional coverage and a willingness to put its balance sheet to work in a challenging region was Citi, the best investment bank and best bank for financing in CEE.
Citi not only maintained its leadership in capital markets, ranking second in Dealogic’s league tables for primary equity and bond issuance, but also jumped to the top of the regional M&A rankings for the first time. In the 12 months to the end of March, Citi accounted for more than 10% of recorded M&A volumes in CEE, acting on 12 deals with a total value of $8.5 billion.
These included sole financial adviser mandates on a clutch of landmark transactions, notably the sale of Raiffeisen Polbank to BNP Paribas, Naspers’ acquisition of a $1.2 billion stake in Russian online classified advertising giant Avito and Taiwan Cement Corporation’s (TCC) purchase of a 40% stake in Turkey’s Oyak for $1.1 billion.
 |
| Theo Giatrakos |
Citi’s extensive regional network is a big factor in its market dominance. The bank is present in 10 markets in CEE, including the four Visegrad countries, Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. It also boasts investment banking hubs backed by commercial banking operations in Russia and Turkey, as well as a dedicated CEE team in London of 24 investment bankers.
This on-the-ground presence gives Citi a competitive advantage over global rivals when it comes to developing and maintaining relationships with regional corporates.
Kayihan Kopmaz, head of Turkish investment banking, cites the Oyak-TCC deal as an example of Citi’s ability to leverage its local presence.
“Thanks to our close strategic dialogue with both clients, we knew about TCC’s interest in Turkey and Oyak’s interest to expand internationally,” he says. “We came up with the idea of bringing TCC as a minority investor into Oyak Cement and using the proceeds from this stake sale for their joint expansion into Europe. We brought TCC into the transaction and then acted for Oyak-TCC on their purchase of Cimpor Portugal.”
Citi’s transaction banking franchise is also key to developing valuable client relationships, particularly with a new generation of rising tech players in central Europe and the Baltics.
“Our ability to offer emerging champions the capabilities to move cash around and manage international payments is critical to building relationships with new players in the ecosystem,” says Theo Giatrakos, head of investment banking for central and southeastern Europe.
“We can create bespoke solutions for their business, which gets us close to the founders and helps us to build a strategic dialogue with them very early. We can then follow them during their evolution to milestones such as an IPO, the sale of a stake to a marquee investor or a cross-border acquisition.”
