Stephen Bird must have been proud cutting the ribbon on Citigroup’s joint venture with Orient Securities in China this summer. The US bank was finally joining the ranks of Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deutsche Bankand JPMorganin having direct access to deals in the country’s stock market.
Amid the usual talk of serving clients and setting new standards of excellence, Mr Bird, chief executive of Citi in Asia, put some hard numbers to the vision.
“In 2011, Chinese bond and equity issuance accounted for about 5 per cent of global supply; a doubling in the last year, and we expect it to grow to around 10 per cent in the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.