Citi hires Rodney Tsang for China team

Citi global banking has appointed Rodney Tsang as a managing director and co-head of China investment banking. He will report to Farhan Faruqui, head of Asia-Pacific global banking.

Rodney will be based in Hong Kong and will partner with Jing Zhao and Eugene Qian to lead Citi's China investment banking business. Qian and Tsang will be co-heads of the business, while Zhao will become chairman.

Tsang joins Citi after two-and-a-half years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was head of China private sector coverage. Prior to this, he worked at Credit Suisse in several senior roles, including head of M&A for Greater China and head of corporate finance for Asia.

Market observers say this is a significant hire for Citi which has been stronger in state-owned-enterprise-related businesses than on private sector coverage. For example, Citi was a joint bookrunner on the $2.5 billion H-share IPO of Metallurgical Corporation of China, which priced yesterday. Last year it ran the books for the H-share portion of China Railway Construction Corp's $5.9 billion dual listing, and advised China Netcom on its merger with China Unicom.

While Citi is currently working on China Vanadium Titano-Magnetite Mining's $293 million IPO, which is private sector, Tsang is viewed as a hire that will strengthen the senior team, and help it become more aggressive in private sector deals.

Some of Tsang's recent deals include: the $230 million sole books equity placement for Chaoda Modern Agricultural in June; the $126 million Nasdaq IPO for Changyou.com in April; and the $600 million convertible bond for Country Garden Real Estate Group in February 2008. He was also on the $230 million equity follow-on for Melco Crown in May, as well as the $230 million exchangeable bond for the same issuer in August 2007.

"This addition to our senior leadership team in China investment banking underlines our continued commitment to provide our clients with the best talent in the industry," said Andrew Au, CEO for Citi China.

"Rodney is a great addition to our leadership team in China. He has excellent client relationships and has led several landmark transactions from China in recent years. We look forward to Rodney joining our China team and further enhancing Citi's position as the foremost, client-first China investment banking franchise", added Farhan Faruqui, head of Asia-Pacific global banking.

Tsang is Citi's fourth managing director in China investment banking, which has a team of more than 30 people. And insiders say there are more hires to come across the China team as the firm continues to build that business to support growth.