Posted on Thursday, 08 February 2018 12:24By ReutersCitigroup expects 2018 to be its best year for investment banking in the Middle East and Africa in at least a decade, likely led by Saudi Arabia, a senior executive at the U.S. bank said. Nigeria, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates would also be the main growth drivers as bond sales, mergers and acquisitions and public share sales pick-up, Miguel Azevedo, Citigroup's head of investment banking, Middle East and Africa, said. For investment banking, the growth should maybe be even more," Azevedo said. In the Middle East and Africa, getting deals done would depend on market stability, but swings in global stocks in recent days represented a correction and were not "enough to put any of these transactions off". Citigroup said last month it had won formal approval from Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority to begin an investment banking business there, enabling its return after an absence of almost 13 years.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 07, 2018 20:03 UTC