Yesterday, Shahryar Mahbub resigned from his post as Asia-Pacific head of investor sales with Citi. Mahbub, who is based in Singapore, had held the post since 2004.
Mahbub is a Citi veteran. He joined Citi in Pakistan in the Karachi office in 1998. Before taking up his current appointment, he was based in New York where he spent eight years as a senior member of Citi's emerging markets fixed-income sales group. A Citi spokesperson confirmed that Mahbub has left the bank, adding that a new leadership structure for the global markets sales division will be announced in the near future.
The investor sales business falls under the umbrella of Citi's markets business, which is currently co-headed by Rodrigo Zorilla and David Ratliff.
Some sources said that Mahbub's departure is driven by a reorganisation of the markets business which will see Zorilla take sole charge. Mahbub was reluctant to get layered and hence decided to put in his papers, according to sources.
However, other sources said Mahbub has been scouting for a new opportunity and perhaps a larger canvas, even before the recent reorganisation at Citi. The sources added that Mahbub is likely to take up a leadership role in fixed-income sales at UBS.
UBS declined to comment and FinanceAsia was unable to reach Mahbub for comment.
"Payouts at Citi happened last month so we've been expecting to see some movement, but Shahryar's resignation is still a surprise," said a banker in sales at another firm.
Citi's markets business employs almost 1,500 staff across 18 countries within the region and is an area that Citi has invested in heavily during the past year. In October 2009, Citi announced the appointment of John Jacobson as the Asia-Pacific head of equity sales, a role that reported directly into Mahbub. Other hires in the past six months include Adrian Faure to head Asian equities, Brent Robinson to head investment research, Joseph Chang to head equities trading and Paul Sanger to head executive services.
Citi's effort to bolster its manpower has also been accompanied by key business moves within the region. In January of this year, the bank announced that it would be setting up a domestic Malaysian equity brokerage business. In addition to this, Citi attained an interbank bond market maker license in August 2009; a licence that gives Citi the right to trade in China's local bond market.
