Citigroup’s coverage of all aspects of the Australian bond business paid dividends in 2013, as the US bank raised more for its clients than any of its Australian or international rivals.
In addition to the depth of its local operations, the US financial giant showed plenty of breadth in making full use of its impressive global debt distribution platform. It handled almost A$14bn (US$13bn) of bond offerings in onshore and offshore jurisdictions during IFR’s review period, a substantial improvement on recent years.
“This is the first year that Citigroup has reached critical mass across all our franchises,” said Alex Hayes-Griffin, its head of Australian debt capital markets.
Citigroup has transformed its Australian dollar business, going from 12th on the league table in 2010 to end IFR’s review period as third among global banks, with a 6.0% market share involving 33 transactions.
Most prestigiously, Citigroup was a joint lead manager for April’s record-breaking 12-year Commonwealth Government bond, which, at the time, was the largest Australian dollar long bond. Another Citigroup mandate, November’s A$5.9bn April 2033 print, smashed that record.
Citigroup also glittered in structured deals, as the top bookrunner of non-self led deals in the RMBS sector. The bank helped arrange CBA’s bumper A$3bn April trade – the biggest public deal in the RMBS market – among other jumbo deals.
In the Kangaroo market, Citigroup kept a high profile among Triple A rated issuers, but also brought lower-rated firms to Australia, with deals for South Korea’s Hyundai Capital and Korea South-East Power, as well as Transpower New Zealand.
Its efforts to bridge the gap between Australia and the rest of Asia Pacific certainly paid off for Transpower, which saw orders from two key Japanese accounts anchor its A$300m 10-year offering.
“We have long identified that Asia plays a vital part in the Australian dollar market and stress the need to make sure issuers visit there,” said Ian Campbell, syndicate director.
Offshore, Citigroup showed its ability to adapt to market conditions when it led two inaugural euro deals from Westfield Retail Trust and Melbourne Airport.
In its bread-and-butter US dollar market, Citigroup’s long-serving syndication team took all four of Australia’s biggest banks to New York for multi-billion dollar deals.
Citigroup also carried out the first liability-management exercise for an Australian issuer in the 144A market, handling Woolworths notes of US$615m.
Further down the credit curve, Citigroup successfully priced a US$500m four-tranche deal for CSL, an unrated biopharmaceutical company, achieving the lowest coupons seen for an Aussie corporate issuer in the US private-placement market.
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