Citibank India expects a strong year for ECM business as IPOs pick up

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, country head said

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.