KEITH MULLIN, KM CAPITAL MARKETS: WELCOME TO IFR’S GERMANY MITTELSTAND FINANCING ROUNDTABLE. LET’S START WITH A REVIEW OF ACTIVITY IN 2023. WE’LL GET INTO SOME MARKET NUANCES AS WE GO ALONG AND END WITH SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE YEAR AHEAD. MIKE, CAN YOU KICK US OFF? Mike Kapoor, Commerzbank: All in all, last year was quite a disappointing one. We were expecting more market activity. Global activity levels were down 15%, close to historic lows since the global financial crisis, a

KEITH MULLIN, KM CAPITAL MARKETS: MIKE, CAN YOU PICK UP ON THOSE OBSERVATIONS? Mike Kapoor, Commerzbank: I think what is true for this entire relationship banking narrative is that the old story still holds true. And that is maybe one of the reasons we weren’t able to get margins for these clients up, even if times were difficult like last year. Reference rates increased significantly, but you basically didn’t see any changes in margins. One of the reasons for that is because most of

Mike Kapoor Commerzbank Mike Kapoor is head of syndicated finance for mid-caps at Commerzbank covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland. His team offers the full spectrum of syndicated loans across origination, structuring, execution, syndication and sales. Kapoor has more than 20 years of experience in the European syndicated loan business, having covered numerous asset classes, including for mid and large-cap investment-grade corporates, project and infrastructure finance, aircraft finance and