If timing is generally half the battle when issuing in the debt capital markets (DCM), it has been absolutely key to success during the past couple of months. Good timing requires patience, fortitude and luck. In 2012, Citi’s central and eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) debt team has benefited from all three.
By the second week of June, the 10-strong DCM team was ahead of the field in CEEMEA bond issuance for the year-to-date with a clear lead over Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank, according to Bloomberg figures. The CEEMEA countries, of course, represent a very mixed bag of economic characteristics, political developments and shades of risk. This very diversity allowed CEEMEA teams covering both sovereign and corporate debt to remain busy even as volatility returned to the markets, exploiting specific windows of opportunity as they opened, then moving on to fresher fields as the windows started to close again.