Citi hires Goldman Sachs banker as Tony Osmond retires

Citi has tapped an operative from its Wall Street rival to join its top ranks. Picture: AFP

Citi has hired Philippe Perzi, the head of the Financial Institutions Group for Australia and New Zealand at Goldman Sachs, as co-head of its investment banking for Australia and New Zealand with Ben Connolly.

It comes with the departure from Citi of Tony Osmond, currently the bank’s chair of Corporate and Investment Banking for Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Perzi’s appointment was first revealed by DataRoom online and his official title is co-head of Capital Markets and Advisory for Australian and New Zealand.

Citi’s Ben Connolly.

Philippe Perzi

Mr Perzi has worked at Goldman Sachs since 2016, arriving after a time at Macquarie Group, and it comes just months after his predecessor, Craig Murray, who runs FIG for Goldman Sachs across Asia, is said to have returned to Australia to expand his role to overseeing private equity for the Asia Pacific region.

It also follows the departure for Goldman Sachs of its ANZ head of equity capital markets.

DataRoom reported in December that Citi had short-listed candidates for the position of head of investment banking for ANZ, with internal and external candidates on the list.

The suggestion in the market was that Citi was keen to find a banker to carry out the role with expertise in FIG or industrials, two areas in which the bank wanted to broaden its coverage locally.

The move to hire a new boss comes after the departure of Citi’s local boss, Alex Cartel, who left last year to join Rothschild & Co.

Mr Osmond, himself a former Goldman Sachs banker, led Citi’s Australia and New Zealand investment banking operations since 2012, two years after he joined, and was named chair in 2022 and vice chair for Japan, Australia and North Asia.

He will stay at the bank until the end of the year.

Mr Connolly heads Citi’s Australia and New Zealand real estate team and as previously reported by DataRoom, was said to be among the contenders for the top job.

He has worked on a number of high profile buyouts and equity raisings in the sector, including Charter Hall’s takeover of Hotel Property Investments, Blackstone’s purchase of data centre giant AirTrunk last year and the New York firm’s acquisition of Crown Resorts in 2022.

Mr Perzi was understood to be one of Goldman Sachs’ rising stars, according to investment banking insiders, and was in line for the coveted partner title at the Wall Street bank.

However, a challenge is that there are already understood to be about four or five partners based in Australia, where the business is overseen by well regarded senior investment bankers Zach Fletcher and Nick Sims.

Mr Perzi has over 20 years of experience working across mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and delivering leveraged and structured finance solutions to clients.

The Sydney-based pair will report to Jan Metzger, Citi’s Head of Investment Banking for Asia Pacific and locally to Mark Woodruff, the Citi Australia chief executive.

Citi is one of the top five investment banks globally and Mr Perzi’s move comes after Australia and New Zealand private equity banker Dragi Ristevski this month moved from Macquarie Capital to JPMorgan, where he becomes co-head of general industrials and head of financial sponsors for the local region.

Investment banking observers believed the move by JPMorgan to hire Mr Ristevski was linked to JPMorgan’s succession planning, placing him in position to run investment banking operations locally should its current boss Julian Peck be promoted.

Goldman Sachs is now understood to be in the market for an Australia and New Zealand head of equity capital markets, and all eyes will be on whether the Wall Street outfit opts to replace Mr Perzi internally or poaches an operative from one of its rivals.