Latest news with #KBalasubramanian
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Business Standard
3 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Citibank India expects a strong year for ECM business as IPOs pick up
Citibank India expects a strong year for its equity capital market business as initial public offerings (IPOs) pick up after a slow start in 2025, the Wall Street bank's India country head said. "Capital raising on the equity capital market side remains a big opportunity with a very strong pipeline and quite a few billion-dollar IPOs in that," K Balasubramanian, who leads the business in the Indian subcontinent, said in an interview in Mumbai late on Monday. Citibank has expanded its investment banking team in India from 28 to 38 over the past year and plans to continue adding bankers to meet the growing opportunity, he said, declining to share details. India's IPO market had its best-ever year in 2024, with $20.5 billion raised. After a sluggish start, activity has picked up this year with firms such as non-bank lender Tata Capital, payment firm Pine Labs, WeWork India and LG Electronics India unit planning to tap the market. "The pipeline includes start-ups who are now finding a market and global corporations who have grown their India businesses over a period of time and are now looking to unlock value," Balasubramanian said. Institutional and investment banking have become core to Citibank's business in India since it withdrew from the retail banking market in 2023. The bank's profit after tax rose to ₹6,193 crore ($722.19 million) in the year ended March 2025, up 32 per cent since the exit. Revenue was up 28 per cent over the same period to ₹22,173 crore. NEW BUSINESS FOCUS Balasubramanian, who stepped into his role in April, is also focused on growing new business. "The second thing that is going to play out for us are some of the new products we have started rolling out on the market, such as securitisation, commercial real estate financing, agency financing and emerging market credit trading," Balasubramanian said. The commercial property business, previously seen as risky in India, is now being driven by demand from large multinationals setting up global capability centres in the country, drawing institutional investors such as Blackstone to the market. "We are doing it cautiously with only the best quality promoters," he said. Citi also sees opportunity in India's need for infrastructure and climate transition financing where large global funds are looking to invest. "As part of this business we are basically looking at providing capital to our clients through a combination of our own capital in the form of bonds, and also getting market players to participate along with us," Balasubramanian said.


Time of India
4 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Citibank India sees 'billion-dollar IPOs' boosting business, country head says
Citibank India expects a strong year for its equity capital market business as initial public offerings (IPOs) pick up after a slow start in 2025, the Wall Street bank's India country head said. "Capital raising on the equity capital market side remains a big opportunity with a very strong pipeline and quite a few billion-dollar IPOs in that," K Balasubramanian, who leads the business in the Indian subcontinent, said in an interview in Mumbai late on Monday. Citibank has expanded its investment banking team in India from 28 to 38 over the past year and plans to continue adding bankers to meet the growing opportunity, he said, declining to share details. India's IPO market had its best-ever year in 2024, with $20.5 billion raised. After a sluggish start, activity has picked up this year with firms such as non-bank lender Tata Capital, payment firm Pine Labs, WeWork India and LG Electronics India unit planning to tap the market. "The pipeline includes start-ups who are now finding a market and global corporations who have grown their India businesses over a period of time and are now looking to unlock value," Balasubramanian said. Live Events Institutional and investment banking have become core to Citibank's business in India since it withdrew from the retail banking market in 2023. The bank's profit after tax rose to 61.93 billion Indian rupees ($722.19 million) in the year ended March 2025, up 32% since the exit. Revenue was up 28% over the same period to 221.73 billion rupees. NEW BUSINESS FOCUS Balasubramanian, who stepped into his role in April, is also focused on growing new business. "The second thing that is going to play out for us are some of the new products we have started rolling out on the market, such as securitisation, commercial real estate financing, agency financing and emerging market credit trading," Balasubramanian said. The commercial property business, previously seen as risky in India, is now being driven by demand from large multinationals setting up global capability centres in the country, drawing institutional investors such as Blackstone to the market. "We are doing it cautiously with only the best quality promoters," he said. Citi also sees opportunity in India's need for infrastructure and climate transition financing where large global funds are looking to invest. "As part of this business we are basically looking at providing capital to our clients through a combination of our own capital in the form of bonds, and also getting market players to participate along with us," Balasubramanian said. ($1 = 85.7525 Indian rupees)


Economic Times
4 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Citibank India sees 'billion-dollar IPOs' boosting business, country head says
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads NEW BUSINESS FOCUS Citibank India expects a strong year for its equity capital market business as initial public offerings (IPOs) pick up after a slow start in 2025, the Wall Street bank's India country head said."Capital raising on the equity capital market side remains a big opportunity with a very strong pipeline and quite a few billion-dollar IPOs in that," K Balasubramanian, who leads the business in the Indian subcontinent, said in an interview in Mumbai late on has expanded its investment banking team in India from 28 to 38 over the past year and plans to continue adding bankers to meet the growing opportunity, he said, declining to share IPO market had its best-ever year in 2024, with $20.5 billion raised. After a sluggish start, activity has picked up this year with firms such as non-bank lender Tata Capital, payment firm Pine Labs, WeWork India and LG Electronics India unit planning to tap the market."The pipeline includes start-ups who are now finding a market and global corporations who have grown their India businesses over a period of time and are now looking to unlock value," Balasubramanian and investment banking have become core to Citibank's business in India since it withdrew from the retail banking market in 2023. The bank's profit after tax rose to 61.93 billion Indian rupees ($722.19 million) in the year ended March 2025, up 32% since the exit. Revenue was up 28% over the same period to 221.73 billion who stepped into his role in April, is also focused on growing new business."The second thing that is going to play out for us are some of the new products we have started rolling out on the market, such as securitisation, commercial real estate financing, agency financing and emerging market credit trading," Balasubramanian commercial property business, previously seen as risky in India, is now being driven by demand from large multinationals setting up global capability centres in the country, drawing institutional investors such as Blackstone to the market."We are doing it cautiously with only the best quality promoters," he also sees opportunity in India's need for infrastructure and climate transition financing where large global funds are looking to invest."As part of this business we are basically looking at providing capital to our clients through a combination of our own capital in the form of bonds, and also getting market players to participate along with us," Balasubramanian said.($1 = 85.7525 Indian rupees)


Economic Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Citi India has capital buffer to last 2 years after retail exit: K Balasubramanian
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Citigroup's exit from retail banking in India has helped it strengthen its corporate operations in the country, K Balasubramanian, the bank's head for the India subcontinent, told Joel Rebello and Sangita Mehta in an interview. Balasubramanian said he is bullish about the bank's growth prospects in the country. Edited excerpts:In March 2023 we gained about ₹11,000 crore from the divestment. But after adjusting for those gains, revenue showed a 28% rise in two years-from ₹17,314 crore to ₹22,173 crore. Similarly, profit after tax after adjusting for one-time gain rose from ₹4,700 crore to ₹6,193 crore, up 32% over two years (₹6,237 crore in FY24). Total assets, after the divestment, rose from ₹2.17 lakh crore to ₹2.70 lakh crore at the end of March 2025, an increase of 25% (₹2.59 lakh crore in FY24). So, as part of our strategy, we have created capacity in a segment where we believe we will grow the best, which is corporate business. That's what we are now leveraging to grow. The bank's loan book rose by 45% from ₹50,000 crore to ₹72,000 crore. Deposits also rose 36%-from ₹1.47 lakh crore to ₹1.99 lakh we quit retail, we were going to double down on the institutional business. In transaction banking, we have over 8% market share, despite not being present in oil and defence. The government's Viksit Bharat vision needs between $3 trillion and $4 trillion capital to be invested in India; there is not enough firepower within India to fund this capex. This money is going to come from the FDI and FII routes. Therefore, on the FDI side, one in four foreign companies that are present in India bank with us, while on the FII side, it is one in three. In foreign exchange, we have early-teens market share. In the ECM business, we have done reasonably well. The pipeline between now and the end of 2025 continues to be strong. If we look at the pipeline between now and at the end of the year, assuming the markets hold, we got a high single-digit billion dollar-plus IPOs which will see the light of the At the end of the day, capital is finite and I have to use the same capital for my retail business as well as on the institutional side of the business. With the retail exit, that capital was available for institutional business. Every year, 25% of our annual profit gets accreted into capital here and the balance 75% we remit. In FY24, we capitalised ₹2,100 crore from the gain made from the consumer business sale. Our capital adequacy was between 18% and 20%. Right now, we are 20.3% despite this growth, which means that we have created a buffer for at least the next two years. Citi India is close to Jane Fraser, the CEO of the bank. We are probably among the top three countries globally for her in terms of investments and would grow at 10% in dollar terms which is 15% in rupees. Strong capital markets and advisory are going to be a big positive. Securitisation will continue to be focus because returns are accretive. Commercial real estate business will grow rapidly and I won't be surprised if that book increases to $600 million in one year from $200 million now. We are looking at participating in big-ticket items the government is focused on-energy transition or renewable energy. We also launched EMCT (emerging market credit trading), wherein we invest in listed debt instruments issued by top-rated corporates. We have built a $650 million book and it can go to $1 is available. Ability to take risks is much better today, because we don't have consumers. We are fully focused on further building our institutional capabilities. And that's exactly what is playing out in the last 24 top 7-10 conglomerates in India are sitting on $10 billion of capex. Every large group has plans to invest in energy is putting up new giga factories; Tata is looking at renewable capacity creation and semiconductor, electronics. JSW is into energy transition and battery technologies.L&T is getting into battery technologies in a very material way. In the last 5-7 years, the government is spending on infrastructure in a material way, unlike the last 15 to 20 years. The nature of capex is changing. We are probably going through the best time in terms of corporate balance sheets, as well as bank balance sheets in our life. Even government banks are sitting on significant cushion of capital, so they are able to lend money for government have 14 branches from 34 before the Axis Bank deal. I don't think we will look at expanding anything significantly beyond launched securitisation of loans three years ago. It has risen from $200 million before retail exit to $1 billion. This helps in growing the fee and balance sheets. We started lending to commercial real estate, which is a Rs 1,400-crore book now, from zero two years ago. It is secured lending against either assets or portfolio receipts from different companies. We also provide loans to medium and small enterprises under commercial banking business, which grew by over 20% where the spreads are very corporate banking, we have worked with almost all the large companies, including the Tatas and when we had consumer banking, it was run as two separate units—consumers used to raise deposits for their assets. Corporate banking unit borrowed money from the consumer unit at arm's length transfer price. So, we were never reliant on the consumer deposit. The 36% market share on FII is a counter for the deposit example, in the HDB IPO, the street collected Rs 80,000-Rs 90,000 crore. We got Rs 30,000 crore of deposit float for 7-8 days. We are also working with development financial institutions to help India get access to newer ports of capital at competitive rates. They do 80% of the financing and we do 20% of the financing. We are on the shorter run of the covers; they take the longer run of the cup. It is 7-19 years. That book is also growing quite nicely.


Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Citi India has capital buffer to last 2 years after retail exit: K Balasubramanian
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Citigroup's exit from retail banking in India has helped it strengthen its corporate operations in the country, K Balasubramanian, the bank's head for the India subcontinent, told Joel Rebello and Sangita Mehta in an interview. Balasubramanian said he is bullish about the bank's growth prospects in the country. Edited excerpts:In March 2023 we gained about ₹11,000 crore from the divestment. But after adjusting for those gains, revenue showed a 28% rise in two years-from ₹17,314 crore to ₹22,173 crore. Similarly, profit after tax after adjusting for one-time gain rose from ₹4,700 crore to ₹6,193 crore, up 32% over two years (₹6,237 crore in FY24). Total assets, after the divestment, rose from ₹2.17 lakh crore to ₹2.70 lakh crore at the end of March 2025, an increase of 25% (₹2.59 lakh crore in FY24). So, as part of our strategy, we have created capacity in a segment where we believe we will grow the best, which is corporate business. That's what we are now leveraging to grow. The bank's loan book rose by 45% from ₹50,000 crore to ₹72,000 crore. Deposits also rose 36%-from ₹1.47 lakh crore to ₹1.99 lakh we quit retail, we were going to double down on the institutional business. In transaction banking, we have over 8% market share, despite not being present in oil and defence. The government's Viksit Bharat vision needs between $3 trillion and $4 trillion capital to be invested in India; there is not enough firepower within India to fund this capex. This money is going to come from the FDI and FII routes. Therefore, on the FDI side, one in four foreign companies that are present in India bank with us, while on the FII side, it is one in three. In foreign exchange, we have early-teens market share. In the ECM business, we have done reasonably well. The pipeline between now and the end of 2025 continues to be strong. If we look at the pipeline between now and at the end of the year, assuming the markets hold, we got a high single-digit billion dollar-plus IPOs which will see the light of the At the end of the day, capital is finite and I have to use the same capital for my retail business as well as on the institutional side of the business. With the retail exit, that capital was available for institutional business. Every year, 25% of our annual profit gets accreted into capital here and the balance 75% we remit. In FY24, we capitalised ₹2,100 crore from the gain made from the consumer business sale. Our capital adequacy was between 18% and 20%. Right now, we are 20.3% despite this growth, which means that we have created a buffer for at least the next two years. Citi India is close to Jane Fraser, the CEO of the bank. We are probably among the top three countries globally for her in terms of investments and would grow at 10% in dollar terms which is 15% in rupees. Strong capital markets and advisory are going to be a big positive. Securitisation will continue to be focus because returns are accretive. Commercial real estate business will grow rapidly and I won't be surprised if that book increases to $600 million in one year from $200 million now. We are looking at participating in big-ticket items the government is focused on-energy transition or renewable energy. We also launched EMCT (emerging market credit trading), wherein we invest in listed debt instruments issued by top-rated corporates. We have built a $650 million book and it can go to $1 is available. Ability to take risks is much better today, because we don't have consumers. We are fully focused on further building our institutional capabilities. And that's exactly what is playing out in the last 24 top 7-10 conglomerates in India are sitting on $10 billion of capex. Every large group has plans to invest in energy is putting up new giga factories; Tata is looking at renewable capacity creation and semiconductor, electronics. JSW is into energy transition and battery technologies.L&T is getting into battery technologies in a very material way. In the last 5-7 years, the government is spending on infrastructure in a material way, unlike the last 15 to 20 years. The nature of capex is changing. We are probably going through the best time in terms of corporate balance sheets, as well as bank balance sheets in our life. Even government banks are sitting on significant cushion of capital, so they are able to lend money for government have 14 branches from 34 before the Axis Bank deal. I don't think we will look at expanding anything significantly beyond launched securitisation of loans three years ago. It has risen from $200 million before retail exit to $1 billion. This helps in growing the fee and balance sheets. We started lending to commercial real estate, which is a Rs 1,400-crore book now, from zero two years ago. It is secured lending against either assets or portfolio receipts from different companies. We also provide loans to medium and small enterprises under commercial banking business, which grew by over 20% where the spreads are very corporate banking, we have worked with almost all the large companies, including the Tatas and when we had consumer banking, it was run as two separate units—consumers used to raise deposits for their assets. Corporate banking unit borrowed money from the consumer unit at arm's length transfer price. So, we were never reliant on the consumer deposit. The 36% market share on FII is a counter for the deposit example, in the HDB IPO, the street collected Rs 80,000-Rs 90,000 crore. We got Rs 30,000 crore of deposit float for 7-8 days. We are also working with development financial institutions to help India get access to newer ports of capital at competitive rates. They do 80% of the financing and we do 20% of the financing. We are on the shorter run of the covers; they take the longer run of the cup. It is 7-19 years. That book is also growing quite nicely.