Citi taps Deutsche’s Alex Cartel as investment banking boss
The long-serving Deutsche banker Alex Cartel will head up Citi’s investment banking arm from July.
Citigroup has confirmed the key appointment of Deutsche Bank’s Alex Cartel as head of investment banking for Australia and New Zealand, as banks jostle for a bigger slice of capital raisings and merger work during the COVID-19 turmoil.
The hire was flagged online by The Australian on Friday in a story pointing to final negotiations to lure Mr Cartel across to Citigroup. The poaching sees him leave Deutsche Bank, where he was most recently local head of investment banking coverage, after 20 years with the firm.
Mr Cartel will start at Citigroup in July, after a period of gardening leave.
“Alex is a proven leader and one of Australia’s most experienced and trusted M&A and ECM advisers,” said Tony Osmond, Citigroup’s head of banking, capital markets and advisory.
“We are experiencing a strong increase in fundraising activity and expect this to grow further to include increased M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity in the second half and beyond. The addition of Alex to our Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory leadership team will ensure we have the capability in place to deliver for our clients.”
Mr Cartel has been involved in a number of notable transactions and takeover defences in recent years, including Santos’ $17.9b successful defence of the EIG Global Energy Partners and Harbour Energy approach, Unibail-Rodamco’s $US25bn takeover of Westfield, the Viva Energy’s $2.65bn ASX listing.
Last year, he worked on the $600m divestments by Kirin of its Lion Drinks and Dairy businesses to China Mengniu and Saputo.
In the same statement, Citigroup also promoted managing directors Rob Jahrling and Hamish Whitehead to co-heads of its Australia and New Zealand equity capital markets arm. They report to John McLean, who runs the bank’s Australia and New Zealand capital markets origination function.
In the past two weeks, Citigroup has worked on capital raising for companies including NextDC, Auckland International Airport, Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group and Electro Optic Systems.
Citigroup ranks sixth so far this year in equity capital markets transactions as at April 17, down from fourth spot at the same time in 2019, according to Refinitiv data. A spate of ASX-listed companies have kicked off capital raisings in the past five weeks to shore up their balance sheets and see through the COVID-19 economic downturn or position for a recovery.
The wave of capital raisings come amid expectations of a dire year for initial public offerings on the ASX, given wild market swings linked to the pandemic’s expected fallout.
Separately, Citigroup is among three banks defending a cartel case launched by the competition regulator relating to a capital raising for ANZ conducted in 2015.
The charges relate to how a shortfall in demand for ANZ’s $2.5bn raising was managed.
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