30th August 2021 – The financing category offers us three models to consider. Firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley show greater strength in equity than debt. Others, notably Credit Suisse and Deutsche, do interesting and crea-tive things in the debt markets, sometimes with careful use of the balance sheet, but tend to appear less in league tables.
Then there are the true full-service houses: HSBC, JPMorgan and Citi. Citi wins the day for the range and volume of its activity, across disciplines and markets.
Often you can see this range in action for a single client.
Take Indian transport financier Shriram: Citi led deals in equity (an underwritten rights offering), debt (a social bond, plus a tap) and structured finance (a domestic asset-backed securities deal in India) during our review period.
In Korea it was there for Coupang on its IPO and a revolving credit facility.
For Yageo in Taiwan it offered a bridge facility, a global depositary receipt and a convertible in the same year, plus buy-side advisory to boot.
Other examples of multiple services for the same client in the review period included IOOF in Australia, GLP in Singapore and Baidu in China.
Citi is strong across the debt matrix, with a leading position in Asia-Pacific G3 bonds.
Some businesses are fairly commoditized, but there is plenty of room for innovation: Alibaba’s $1 billion 20-year sustainability bond within a broader $5 billion offering, for example; the Yulan bond and blue bonds for Bank of China; plus a host of Covid-related financing in Korea in particular.
Citi is also strong in loans, acquisition finance and structured finance, which is where houses in this category are expected to excel. Revolving credit facilities for Hong Kong’s Vistra and Indonesia’s CPIN required innovative structuring, while deals for Resi-mac and Judobank showed securitization strength, and the Ichthys LNG refinancing set records for project finance.
While equity is not the key determinant of this award, it did provide a point of leadership over clear rival HSBC. Deals for Coupang, Softbank, Reliance and Afterpay were among the highlights.
