---
title: "Dealmaking surges as Citi's UK chief calls the market 'on fire'"
description: "Mergers and acquisitions are booming again, and one of the City of London's most senior bankers has summed it up bluntly: the market, she says, is 'on fire' — driven by big companies breaking themselves up and cheaper borrowing luring buyers back."
category: "Business"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/business
author: "Liam Fitzgerald"
published: 2026-07-02T08:22:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-02T08:22:00.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/dealmaking-surges-as-citi-s-uk-chief-calls-the-market-on-fire
tags: ["mergers-and-acquisitions", "citi", "markets", "united-kingdom", "business"]
---
# Dealmaking surges as Citi's UK chief calls the market 'on fire'

Mergers and acquisitions are booming again, and one of the City of London's most senior bankers has summed it up bluntly: the market, she says, is 'on fire' — driven by big companies breaking themselves up and cheaper borrowing luring buyers back.

After a couple of lean years, the business of buying and selling companies is roaring back. Tiina Lee, the chief executive of Citi's UK operations, described the mergers and acquisitions market as "on fire," [CNBC reported](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/02/uk-ma-citi-tiina-lee.html), pointing to a wave of large companies choosing to simplify by splitting themselves apart.

## Getting smaller on purpose

One of the defining features of the current wave is that many big companies are growing not by acquiring, but by breaking up. The logic is a familiar one on Wall Street and in the City: sprawling conglomerates often trade at a "discount," valued by investors at less than the sum of their individual businesses. Splitting into focused, standalone companies is meant to unlock that hidden value.

The trend has produced a run of high-profile separations. The US industrial group Honeywell has announced plans to split into three, and Warner Bros. Discovery has moved to break apart its streaming, studio and cable-television arms. Even Citigroup, Lee's own employer, has spent recent years slimming down under its group chief executive, Jane Fraser, exiting some markets and shedding layers of management to concentrate on its core business.

## What is driving it

Bankers and advisers point to a mix of forces behind the rebound. Interest rates have come down from their peaks, lowering the cost of financing deals and supporting higher valuations — a crucial ingredient, since much dealmaking is funded with borrowed money. Activist investors, who take stakes in companies to push for change, have increasingly agitated for breakups and asset sales, adding pressure on boards to act. And a period of relative market calm has given executives the confidence to commit to big, long-planned transactions.

For an international financial center like London, a busy deals market is significant beyond the boardroom: it generates fees for banks, lawyers and advisers, and is often read as a barometer of corporate confidence.

## Reasons for caution

The enthusiasm is not universal, and the boom is uneven. Much of the surge has come from very large transactions, while smaller, mid-sized deals have been slower to recover, held back by gaps between what buyers will pay and what sellers want. Advisers also warn that risks remain: geopolitical tensions can freeze activity quickly, financing can tighten, and tougher antitrust scrutiny — as underscored by regulators' continued willingness to challenge big companies — can delay or block the largest deals.

Still, the overall direction is clear enough. After a subdued stretch, companies and their bankers are once again in a mood to do deals — whether by joining businesses together or, increasingly, by pulling them apart.

## Sources

- [UK M&A market 'on fire' as companies simplify, Citi UK CEO says](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/02/uk-ma-citi-tiina-lee.html)