Citi’s head of Asia-Pacific equity syndicate, Rupert Mitchell, has left the bank to join Goldman Sachs, according to sources.
It is understood that after serving out his gardening leave, which began this week, Mitchell will join Goldman Sachs’ equity capital markets team in Hong Kong.
Goldman would not confirm the move, while Citi declined to comment. Mitchell could not immediately be reached.
Steve Lam and Harish Raman, directors on Citi’s equity syndicate unit, will take over Mitchell’s responsibilities but the bank does not have any immediate plans to replace Mitchell, FinanceAsia understands.
Mitchell has nearly 20 years of equity capital markets experience, specifically for Asian issuers.
He initially joined Citi in 2000, spending seven-and-a-half years at the bank, first in Hong Kong focused on equity-linked origination for Asian issuers, before relocating to London in mid-2003 to work on Citi’s capital markets origination team.
Mitchell then spent more than two-and-a-half years at Jefferies as head of international equity capital markets, working in the New York brokerage firm’s London-based international unit from November 2007 to October 2010.
He later re-joined Citi in October 2010 as its Asia-Pacific ex-Japan equity syndicate head, replacing Leslie Holland, who left the industry in June 2010 to move to New Zealand with his family. Mitchell held the role at Citi for three-and-a-half years in Hong Kong before leaving earlier this week.
He also worked at ING Barings’ corporate finance team for five years, before his first stint at Citi.
Lam and Raman worked together at UBS before joining Citi’s Asian equity syndicate desk three years ago. Lam was the first to leave the Swiss bank, where he held a similar role from July 2007 through March 2011.
Raman soon followed, resigning from UBS two weeks after Lam’s departure. He spent five years at UBS, mainly focused on Asian syndicates before taking on a dual role on the Indian equity syndicate desk in the middle of 2010.
As of Wednesday, Citi ranked number 11 in the Dealogic league tables for equity deals in Asia ex-Japan, with $802 million worth of league table credits and five deals completed this year. Citi’s market share in 2014 is 3%, compared to 5.1% for the same period last year.
Goldman, meanwhile, ranks number one year-to-date, having completed $2.96 billion of league table credits in six deals in Asia ex-Japan. Its market share is 11% in 2014, compared to 20.3% in 2013.
