Amid reports of India capital market head Arvind Vashishtha leaving the organisation, Citi on Monday clarified that he will continue as head of India Equity Capital Markets (ECM) at Citi. He will report to Hong Kong-based Udhay Furtado and Ken Chow in Hong Kong, co-heads of Asia Equity Capital Markets.
“India remains one of our key global markets. Citi has consistently been #1 in India ECM and YTD Citi has raised more than US $4 billion and retained our market leading position. Arvind’s ongoing leadership will continue to be crucial to driving our franchise forward,” it said in a statement.
Reports suggested that Vashishtha planned to quit Citi and join peer investment bank JP Morgan as a replacement for Abhinav Bharti. However, he is reported to have later reversed this decision. Vashistha had joined Citi as head of ECM in November 2014 from UBS, to fill in the position after former head Bhavna Thakur resigned.
Earlier in February 2024, Citigroup appointed JP Morgan’s former head of global investment banking Viswas Raghavan as the new head of banking.
According to financial markets platform Dealogic, Citi topped the underwriting league table for Indian clients, with a market share of 14 per cent. It was also the top underwriter for ECM in Asia ex-Japan in Q4 FY24, with total issuance volume at double that of the closest competitor.
“Citi has led majority of the largest transactions year-to-date across India and Asia markets, successfully executing and pricing a combination of domestic and cross-border block trades, real estate investment trusts (REITs), Global Depository Receipt (GDRs), American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and convertible bonds,” it said.
Notable transactions include the US $2.1 billion block trade by British American Tobacco (BAT) in ITC Limited and the US $1.1 billion block trade by Tata Sons in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Some other block deals relate to companies such as Vedanta, Zomato, Devyani International and Gland Pharma.