In another move that shows how Citi is building its Australia team, the US firm announced yesterday that it has hired Tony Osmond as head of investment banking for Australia and New Zealand. He joins from Goldman Sachs in Australia where he was head of mergers and acquisitions and the natural resources and industrials franchise.
Osmond, who will be based in Melbourne, joined Goldman Sachs JBWere in 2003 as an executive director and quickly climbed the ladder: he became an equity holder in 2004 and managing director in 2006. He served on the firm's partnership committee from 2006 to 2009. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs JBWere, he worked in investment banking at UBS and Bankers Trust after commencing his career as a lawyer at Freehills in Melbourne.
That gives him more than 16 years' experience in large and complex mergers, acquisitions and capital markets transactions. He recently advised on the sale of CSR's sugar business and on the Orica demerger of DuluxGroup.
"We continue to make strategic hires of exceptional bankers who understand the value to clients of Citi's global franchise, distribution capabilities for capital issuance and the strength of our balance sheet," said Chris Knoblanche, head of global banking for Citi in Australia and New Zealand. "We are not looking to build size, but rather appoint individual bankers who bring a new dimension to the business. Tony's appointment is a realisation of that strategy."
Osmond's appointment follows a number of other high-profile hires including Brett Paton who joined as a vice-chairman in the institutional clients group in April and Karen Phin who joined in March as head of capital management advisory.
Paton, who was with UBS for more than 20 years, is well-known in the Australian investment banking industry, having advised many company boards and managements on initial public offerings, major capital raisings and funding for mergers and acquisitions. He has played a leading role in more than 400 equity issues, raising more than A$100 billion for clients. He has also worked with both commonwealth and state governments on major privatisations. Phin joined from the Australian securities watchdog ASIC where she was a senior specialist. Prior to that, she spent 12 years at UBS in Australia, most recently leading the capital management team.
"Citi has identified Australia as a geography in which we intend to grow both the retail and institutional banking business, and these appointments are indicative of that commitment," said Stephen Roberts, Citi country officer for Australia and head of the institutional clients group, Australia and New Zealand. "Tony and Brett are trusted advisers to important clients, as well as team players, with a proven ability to harness the capabilities of the organisation in which they work. We expect their appointments to be transformational for all parts of the institutional business over time."
Citi's Australia business has been moving from strength to strength. The US bank has raised close to $6 billion for Australian companies from the debt markets so far this year according to Dealogic. It was joint bookrunner on a $3.5 billion global bond issue for Commonwealth Bank of Australia; joint lead manager and underwriter for a A$2.5 billion equity offering for Woodside Petroleum, Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer; and provided defence to Arrow Energy on the $2.96 billion bid by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina Co.
Farhan Faruqui, head of global banking for Citi in Asia-Pacific, is clearly quite proud of the build up: "Our Australia global banking franchise is one of the most important countries in the region for Citi. It is home to some world-class companies that are expanding and need access to capital and M&A advice. We are also seeing increased inbound discussions into Australia from some of the 100 plus countries in which we operate around the world. This new addition and recent hires underline our commitment to clients in Australia and around the world to provide the best talent to serve them."
Outside of Australia, Citi has beefed up its global banking team in recent months with new managing director hires in the region. In June, it announced the appointment of Matthew Mrozinski as head of real estate banking for Asia. In March we reported that Colin Banfield, Nomura's then joint head of investment banking, was moving to Citi to head M&A for Asia-Pacific -- he started two weeks ago. And the firm is also bringing some of its old Asia hands back to the region such as Chris Laskowski, who in late June returned to Hong Kong as head of the financial entrepreneurs group Asia-Pacific global banking and became chief operating officer for global banking Asia-Pacific.
"We have a great bench, but these new additions will give us extra firepower across the region," said Faruqui.
