Roger Zhu, Citi’s Greater China head of corporate and investment banking (CIB), has retired, people familiar with the move said on Thursday.
Citi's Hong Kong head of CIB, Chris Laskowski, has taken up the role during the interim they added. Laskowski is also head of Asia Pacific alternative assets group at Citi.
Zhu, who is 60 years old, joined Citi in 2011 after nearly a decade at CICC, where he was responsible for business development and client coverage within the investment banking division.
Zhu was known for his connections with mainland China's state owned enterprises but also brought in deals with private enterprises, including Chinese funeral services firm Fu Shou Yuan International IPO in Hong Kong.
During his time at CICC, Zhu was involved in the IPOs for ICBC, China Construction Bank, Shanghai Auto, China XD Group and Minmetals, among many others.
Laskowski was named head of the business in Hong Kong during 2013 and has been covering Asian clients since 1999.
Last year Citi ranked twelth in mainland China in terms of investment banking revenues but in Asia Pacific including Japan it was seventh according to the latest data from Dealogic.
Citi appointed Mark Slaughter as head of corporate and investment banking for Asia-Pacific after Farhan Faruqui left the US bank last year to join ANZ. Slaughter, a former Goldman Sachs veteran and a qualified nuclear scientist, was most recently its global chief operating officer for corporate and investment banking.
Slaughter is continuing Faruqui's push to make the various businesses within Citi, such as corporate banking, investment banking and transaction services, to work more closely together to generate incremental revenues.
Other China moves
In a separate move within Citi's China franchise Eugene Qian, President of Citibank in China has left the bank for personal reasons, according to two of the people familiar with the matter. Qian took on the role last year reporting to Andrew Au. He will not be replaced.
Qian joined Citi from Deutsche Bank in 2007.
Peggy Zhou, a managing director in Citi's China FIG team also left the firm recently, the people said.
Citi has more than 10,000 people employed in China across different platforms and generates over $1 billion in the world's second-largest economy.
Citi reported fourth-quarter earnings results on Thursday.
The New York-headquartered bank posted fourth-quarter net income of $350 million, or 6 cents a share, down from $2.46 billion, or 77 cents, in the fourth quarter a year earlier.
The results were hit by a difficult trading environment. It's fixed-income markets revenue fell 16% from a year earlier to $1.99 billion due to weakness in spread products and G10 rates, Citi said said.
Citi said its net income in Asia in the fourth quarter was flat at $312 million but down 24% from the third-quarter.
This story has been updated to include Citi's fourth-quarter results and to correct the spelling of Peggy Zhou's name.
