In the recently announced The Asset Triple A Country Awards 2022 for Sustainable Finance, Citi Taiwan was honored as Best Bank – Global, for the 20th straight year, and Best Corporate and Institutional Adviser – Global, for the 8th straight year. The firm was also recognized in several other Best Adviser and Best Deals categories.
Despite capital market volatility, Citi focused on helping clients build operating resilience and their sustainability transformation. Citi was also named Best Equity Adviser and Best M&A Adviser – Global. Among the Best Deals, Citi Taiwan supported clients on transactions that won Best GDR, Best Formosa Bond, Best Corporate Bond and Best M&A.
Christie Chang, head of Citi APAC Corporate Banking and President of Citibank Taiwan, said, “Market conditions in 2022 highlighted the importance of financial institutions’ resilience. We would like to thank our clients for their continued partnership. We are committed to Taiwan and supporting clients across our local and global network to support their ambitions. We are well positioned for further growth in a key market for Citi.”
Photo courtesy of Citibank Taiwan
Founded 1999, The Asset is a widely recognized regional financial magazine. The magazine’s annual Triple A recognition represents one of the most prestigious awards for banking and capital markets. According to its editorial team, negative market sentiment dampened deal activity, including Formosa bonds, while there was a strong demand for ESG-themed offerings. Taiwan’s local syndication market was vibrant with borrowers going for sustainability-linked transactions to showcase their ESG credentials. In the meantime, it’s noteworthy that a number of big companies took the GDR (global depositary receipt) route to raise funds. During the award review period, Citi Taiwan closed several landmark deals, including the first financial industry’s GDR offering from Taiwan since 2018, a USD-denominated corporate bond issued by a semiconductor company to fund its capex plan and the largest retail M&A in Taiwan.
The newly appointed head of Citi Taiwan Aftab Ahmed said, “We thank The Asset for recognizing Citi Taiwan again in 2022. Citi Taiwan is the premier provider of client-centric financial solutions. Our institutional businesses delivered very strong growth, and this can be attributed to our strong relationship management focus and global network. We remain highly committed to the market and to serving our clients with excellence.”
In 2022, Citi Taiwan was also named the best global bank by Asiamoney and FinanceAsia, while Citigroup was accredited for its best leadership and as best investment bank in Asia by Euromoney. As a distinguished corporate citizen, Citi continues to work toward sustainable development goals from the three ESG dimensions and support clients’ sustainability transformation, including reduction of carbon footprints, sustainable finance, cultivation of a DEI culture, giveback to communities, youth empowerment, migrant workers’ finance education and breakpoint-free customer digital experience with high security standards.
IN GOOD FAITH: Lai said he appreciates Micron’s commitment to Taiwan and that it would continue expanding its investment in the country, while also working with labor President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for US memory maker Micron Technology Inc and its workers to negotiate “sincerely” ahead of a possible strike by the company’s union in Taiwan. Last week, a Taiwanese union representing workers at Micron said it had secured authorization from its members to strike over a dispute concerning the company’s bonus scheme, escalating a labor conflict at the chipmaker’s largest manufacturing hub. Micron employs about 15,000 people in Taiwan and has said it invested more than NT$1.6 trillion (US$49.6 billion) in the country. Speaking in Taichung at the opening of a new Micron advanced assembly and testing facility,
China proposed adding advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to its export-control list, potentially restricting overseas transfers of AI models and chip designs in an effort to keep closer control over homegrown advancements in a strategically important sector. The draft proposal covers 23 AI technologies, including large language models, agents, chip designs and computing clusters. Restricted technologies would include model weights and source code for products exceeding certain performance thresholds. Chinese AI startups have this summer made significant progress in closing the gap on US industry leaders. Models such as Moonshot (月之暗面) AI’s Kimi K3 and DeepSeek’s (深度求索) latest editions offer better pricing,
CoreWeave Inc has become caught in a tug of war between investors who see rising bond yields as a potential rally killer for the artificial intelligence (AI) trade and those who think demand for computing power will make those concerns seem passe before long. The cloud-computing services provider’s shares plunged 20 percent in the first three sessions of last week, including more than 15 percent on Wednesday, as its debt tumbled to levels that typically indicate distress. On Thursday morning, the cost of protecting CoreWeave bonds against default rose to the highest intraday level on record, while swaps priced in a
Taiwan should not rule out any energy source or abandon environmental sustainability in favor of ideology and short-term benefits, President William Lai (賴清德) said in an interview, calling for a “professional assessment” of whether nuclear power should be reintroduced into Taiwan’s energy mix. In an online interview with influencer Yu Ting-hao (游庭皓) that aired yesterday, Lai reiterated his position on nuclear power. SHIFT Lai’s remarks marked a shift from the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP’s) longstanding opposition to nuclear power. As premier from 2017 to 2019, Lai pushed for more gas-fired power capacity while sticking to the DPP’s nuclear free homeland ideology and rejected the