US-based multinational banking service provider Citigroup recently revealed in an announcement that it has appointed two new executives to role of Global Head of Equity Capital Markets. As per update released by the firm, the two executives who will be working in co-capacity as global heads are both parts of CitiGroup’s family and have been promoted to their new roles.
The promotion of these executives comes at a difficult and critical time for the firm give the fact that ECM fees have fallen by nearly 16% industry-wide this year according to data from Refinitiv. Citi group is one of the top-five equity underwriting banks worldwide and sees considerable revenue flow from its ECM business unit given its involvement with many firms by helping the firms raise money on public stock exchanges.
Given ongoing trade war between major global economies, investment banking revenues seem to have gone down to a 13-year low industry-wide as per a report in financial times website. The move to appoint a new global head for ECM unit is a part of wider plan which sees a series of leadership changes at Citi. The move began when the firm saw its long-standing executive and head of investment banking – Jamie Forese retired in April and was replaced by former global markets head Paco Ybarra.
As per the update, the two executives who are taking up new role are – Mr. Douglas Adams and James Fleming with Adams. Douglas is another long-standing executive at the firm having served at the firm for nearly 26 years as head of North American ECM unit. James who takes on the role of co-global head of equity capital markets has been a part of the firm for nearly a year now serving in the role of head of ECM unit for EMEA region.
Prior to joining Citigroup, he served as head of ECM unit for EMEA region at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. As James vacates the role of head of ECM unit for EMEA region, the vacancy is being filled by Mr. Suneel Hargunani who has been a part of Citi Group since 1999.
According to a separate memo received by financial times revealed via its articles online, the firm appointed Mr. David Livingstone to the role of head of Europe in order ensure smooth business operations of its European division during ongoing turbulent Brexit proceedings induced environment.
These changes in leadership roles made by US lender shows its increased cautious stance following recent series of failed IPOs and disappointing debuts and loss of nearly $180 Million in loans to Asian hedge fund by the lenders’ FX prime brokerage division.
Source:
https://www.ft.com/content/655543c4-ec1f-11e9-a240-3b065ef5fc55
