Citigroup Beefs Up Investment Banking Ranks
June 21 2019 - 11:09AM
Dow Jones News
By Ben Dummett
Citigroup Inc. has poached a clutch of U.S.-based senior
investment bankers from rivals, as it looks to challenge Goldman
Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley for a
spot among the top three investment banks globally ranked by
revenue.
The hirings come less than a year after Citigroup combined its
corporate lending and mergers-and-acquisitions advisory business
with its unit that helps clients raise debt and equity. The new
division's promise of allowing bankers to cross-sell lending,
underwriting, advisory and other related services to clients
together is partly designed to be a key selling point for
attracting new investment bankers.
Among the highest-profile new hires is Deutsche Bank AG's Mark
Keene, who co-headed the German lender's global technology, media
and telecom team in San Francisco. He will remain based there for
Citigroup and will oversee technology investment banking globally
together with the bank's Herb Yeh.
Mr. Keene's expertise is in the semiconductor sector, a big
source of business for deal makers as the increasing adoption of
semiconductors to help connect cars, refrigerators and other
everyday items to the internet is pushing the industry to
consolidate. Earlier this month, German chip maker Infineon
Technologies AG struck a $9.4 billion deal to acquire the U.S.'s
Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
Citigroup has been in the second tier of global investment banks
in recent years. It occupied the No. 5 spot the past two years,
generating less than 60% of the $6.91 billion in investment-banking
revenue that top-ranked JPMorgan garnered last year, according to
Dealogic. Citigroup is stronger outside the U.S., ranked in the top
three in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Citigroup is adding a total of seven bankers -- three from
Goldman, three from Deutsche Bank and one from Barclays PLC --
focused on the technology, health care and private-equity sectors
both in the U.S. and abroad.
"If we get the right talent, we have a big opportunity," said
London-based Manolo Falco, co-head of Citigroup's Banking, Capital
Markets and Advisory unit. Mr. Falco oversees the division with
Citigroup's Tyler Dickson, who is based in New York.
Among the other hires: tech bankers Elizabeth Milonopoulos from
Goldman Sachs and Brian Yick from Barclays as global co-heads of
internet investment banking. In the health-care sector, Citigroup
has hired another banker from Goldman, Doretta Mistras, whose work
includes advising on the $32 billion deal between Shire PLC and
Baxalta Inc.
The bank has hired Michael Marcus from Goldman, along with two
senior Deutsche Bank bankers, Mark Hantho and John Eydenberg. The
Wall Street Journal previously reported that Messrs. Hantho and
Eydenberg were in talks to jump to Citigroup.
The three New York-based bankers bring a list of established
relationships with major companies and private-equity investors and
are expected to help Citigroup shore up its business advising the
likes of Apollo Global Management LLC, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp.
and other big investors.
Citigroup's deals in this space include working with Singapore's
GLP on the $18.7 billion sale earlier this year of its U.S.
industrial warehouses to Blackstone Group LP. Still, the bank's
U.S. business that advises private-equity investors has ranked
outside of the top five by revenue in each of the past two years,
according to Dealogic.
Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2019 10:54 ET (14:54 GMT)
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