Citi has appointed Michael Borch as chief operating officer for corporate and investment banking (CIB) in Asia-Pacific, according to an internal announcement. He will take over from Chris Laskowski, who will focus on his two other jobs as head of CIB for Hong Kong and head of the Asia-Pacific alternative assets group.
Borch will retain his current role as head of transportation, but will step down as head of industrials to free up time for the COO job.
In the announcement, Citi’s head of global banking for Asia-Pacific, Farhan Faruqui, noted that since Laskowski took on the COO job in June 2010, the US bank has greatly strengthened its franchise in the region by executing on its unique client strategy, increasing its wallet share and revenues, building out its securities joint venture in China and hiring top-tier talent.
He added that he has “asked [Laskowski] to increase his focus on his client management responsibilities across the Hong Kong corporate and investment banking and alternative assets franchises going forward in order to further drive performance”.
The COO role was a new position when Laskowski took it on three years ago and at the time Citi described it as a leadership position in a range of client initiatives and said the COO will ensure that the bank is delivering the full power of its platform to its clients across the region. The COO works closely with Faruqui and has a say in recruitment and the direction of the global banking division in Asia-Pacific.
Global banking integrates the corporate and investment bank in Asia-Pacific and is responsible for covering Citi’s largest institutional clients.
Borch transferred to Hong Kong in January 2009 to become head of industrials within CIB and has also been leading the coverage of the transportation sector. He was previously head of transportation investment banking for Europe, based in London.
Laskowski has spent 15 years with Citi and has been covering Asian clients since 1999. In 2008, when he was running the financial sponsors group that he had started for Citi in Asia a few years earlier, he left the region to return to the US. At the time, the global financial crisis was building and private equity firms were not particularly active.
He moved to Chicago for a job as a managing director covering Midwest banks and looking after private equity deals for the Midwest area. However, in June 2010 Faruqui lured him back to Asia with an offer to take over the helm of his old financial sponsors group again, which was leaderless after the departure of Chris Gammons, and added the new COO role as a further incentive.
The financial sponsors group was renamed as the financial entrepreneurs group and since then it has changed names yet again. It is now referred to as the alternative assets group.
Laskowski was appointed head of CIB for Hong Kong in April this year, filling a position that was left empty in October last year when Ed Lam left to become chief financial officer of Li & Fung.
As Borch steps up to take on the COO role, Citi’s greater industrials coverage will be managed by several bankers, according to the announcement: David Biller and Jason Wortendyke will jointly lead diversified industrials, Jason Johnson will be responsible for metals and mining and will also manage the energy coverage together with Philip Graham, and Anup Mysoor continues to be responsible for the aviation and power sectors.
