M&A pay up at Citigroup?

Are Citigroup's M&A pros on track for bumper bonuses? They could well be.

Yesterday Citigroup announced its second highest ever quarterly profit, driven by soaring revenues from mergers and acquisitions.

The bank unveiled total net income for the three months ended June 2006 of $5.26 billion (2.88 billion) - up 11% on the same quarter last year. Revenue from the corporate and investment banking division rose by 31%, to $6.7 billion.

At the same time, Citigroup has done a good job of scaling the league tables. Thomson Financial put the bank in second place in global M&A in the second quarter of this year - a great improvement on the same time in 2005, when the bank ranked in 6th place both globally and in Europe.