Citi hires new head of equity syndicate

Rupert Mitchell, a former Citi banker, is about to rejoin the firm as its new head of equity syndicate for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, according to an internal announcement. He will replace Leslie Holland, who left Citi and the investment banking industry in early June to move to New Zealand with his family.

Mitchell, who is joining as a managing director, has more than 16 years of equity capital markets experience and some years ago spent five years in Hong Kong focusing on equity-linked origination for Asian issuers, first at ING Barings and then from 2000 at Citi. He left Hong Kong in mid-2003 to join Citi’s capital markets origination team in London. In November 2007 he moved across to Jefferies, a securities and investment banking firm with headquarters in New York and operations in 25 cities globally, to take up a role as head of international equity capital markets, also in London, where he has remained until now.

At Citi he will join an equity syndicate team that also includes Jackie Chien and Victor Wong in Hong Kong and Rob Jahrling in Australia. And he is likely to be very welcome, given how busy the bank is at the moment and the sizeable pipeline of potential deals that it is supposedly sitting on.

This week alone, Citi has helped Chaoda Modern Agriculture to raise $356 million from a deal comprising new shares, convertible bonds and warrants; and has acted as a joint bookrunner on two block trades in Singapore-listed Tiger Airways ($92 million) and Korean auto parts manufacturer Mando Corporation ($359 million) (see separate story on our website today). It has also launched investor education for an initial public offering of up to $270 million for India's Avantha Power & Infrastructure.

As of last Friday, Citi was seventh in the Dealogic league tables for equity deals in Asia excluding Japan and the China A-share market, with $3.8 billion worth of league table credits and 26 completed deals year-to-date. It was fifth in the equity-linked rankings.

However, help won’t be at hand just yet as Mitchell isn’t due to start until October 1. He will be based in Hong Kong and will report to Ken Poon, who is head of capital markets origination for Asia-Pacific.