Citizens Financial unveils its fifth M&A deal of 2021

Citizens Financial Group will buy a capital markets advisory firm specializing in the tech and communications sectors, the latest in a string of deals this year for the Providence, Rhode Island, company.

The $187 billion-asset Citizens has agreed to pay cash for substantially all of the assets of DH Capital but did not otherwise disclose financial terms of the transaction, which is slated to close in the first quarter. The privately held investment banking firm, which is based in New York and has an additional office in Boulder, Colorado, would operate as a division of Citizens Capital Markets when the deal closes.

DH Capital works with companies in the internet infrastructure, software, information-technology services and communications sectors and has advised on more than 200 mergers and acquisitions totaling around $35 billion in value.

“The DH Capital team brings us deep expertise in the digital-infrastructure sector, a key and ongoing area of opportunity in today’s highly dynamic commercial market,” Donald McCree, Citizens’ head of commercial banking, said in a press release Wednesday.

The DH Capital deal is the fifth announced by Citizens this year. Since it spun off from the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2015, the company has steadily built up its fee-generating businesses through a series of nonbank acquisitions. Most recently, it said it would acquire JMP Group, a capital markets firm in San Francisco. It also bought Willamette Management Associates, a valuation consulting firm in Portland, Oregon.

Citizens is also in the process of buying Investors Bancorp in Short Hills, New Jersey, as well as the East Coast retail banking operations of the London banking giant HSBC. Those two deals are expected to vault Citizens into a top-10 bank by deposits in the New York City metro market. The company’s leadership has also expressed a desire to acquire more wealth management firms.