Best investment bank: Citi
Citi has the largest franchise of the international banks present in Finland and is the only international bank with both investment banking and corporate banking presence in the market. Finland is a priority market for Citi, with product leadership across M&A advisory, ECM, DCM, investment-grade loans, treasury and trade solutions, and sovereign/supranational financing.
In 2025, a number of key M&A transactions demonstrated Citi’s advisory reach across private equity, industrials and technology services. For the sale of Evac to Altor, Citi advised Bridgepoint, demonstrating its ability to advise on specialist Finnish-headquartered assets with global industrial applications and strong sustainability relevance, particularly where the buyer universe and strategic positioning extend beyond Finland.
Citi also advised Metso on the sale of its Ferrous business to SMS Group, demonstrating the trust placed in Citi by major domestic industrial champions on portfolio optimisation and strategic divestments.
In DCM, Citi was especially active for financial institutions in 2025. It acted as bookrunner on three Nordea senior preferred offerings in the course of the year, as well as structuring adviser, joint lead manager and joint dealer manager on Sampo’s tier 1 offering in September 2025. This DCM leadership also extended to Finnish corporates: in May, Citi acted as joint bookrunner on Metso’s seven-year bond offering, reinforcing its relationship with one of Finland’s major industrial names.
Finally, Citi has a deep public-sector franchise in Finland. It has served as a primary dealer for the Republic of Finland for over six years, supporting the sovereign’s funding programme through market making and distribution, and in 2020 launched direct custody and clearing services in the country.
In 2025, Citi was active across major regional SSA issuers, including the Republic of Finland, Nordic Investment Bank and Municipality Finance. Key transactions included roles as joint lead manager on large senior unsecured fixed-rate bonds, as well as several sole-led smaller sterling and euro issues. This gives Citi a strong SSA profile alongside its corporate and financial institutions franchise.
Best investment bank for ECM: DNB Carnegie
DNB Carnegie ranked first in Finnish ECM by both deal value and deal count in 2025, across three IPOs, one fully guaranteed rights issue and one directed share issue These covered a range of sectors, from infrastructure and logistics to workplace technology, medtech and biopharma.
Transactions such as the Framery Group IPO helped to reopen and deepen the Finnish IPO market in 2025. DNB Carnegie acted as joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner for Framery’s debut on Nasdaq Helsinki in December, demonstrating the bank’s ability to support Finnish companies with global customer bases. Other IPOs for Posti Group and GRK Infra earlier in the year showed the bank’s breadth across public services infrastructure, logistics and technology-enabled office solutions.
Beyond IPOs, DNB Carnegie acted as joint global coordinator on Bioretec’s fully guaranteed rights issue in June, and as joint bookrunner for Faron Pharmaceuticals’ directed share issue in February. These smaller transactions showed the bank serving growth and life sciences companies in Finland as well as larger IPO candidates, reinforcing its role across the full ECM spectrum.
The bank has significant placing capability, supported by more than 130 equity sales professionals globally. In all of DNB Carnegie’s 2025 IPOs, the bank generated more investor demand than any other syndicate bank, showing that as well as winning mandates the bank is able to deliver demand, pricing support and confidence for issuers in a market where successful IPO execution requires both local credibility and international investor access.
