Citigroup Bolsters Investment Banking Ranks With Eye on Cash-Rich Private-Equity Firms

By Ben Dummett 

Citigroup Inc. has hired a veteran banker of HSBC Holdings PLC and Deutsche Bank to co-head its coverage of private equity, sovereign-wealth funds, pension funds and family office clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in an effort to take advantage of the record amounts of money this group has to invest.

Based in London, Alexis Maskell will join with Citigroup's Shawn Borisoff and together the two will oversee the U.S. bank's EMEA alternative assets group, a spokeswoman confirmed. Mr. Maskell, who is set to start his new role in June, most recently was global head of HSBC's investment-banking operations focused on private-equity firms. Before that he spent 10 years at Deutsche Bank.

He will report to Anthony Diamandakis and Christian Anderson, global co-head of Citigroup's Global Asset Managers group.

Mr. Maskell's hiring comes at a time when institutional investors are plowing money into infrastructure funds and private-equity firms to diversify from public securities and seek higher returns. Last year, Apollo Global Management LLC raised $23.5 billion a buyout fund while CVC Capital Partners set a fundraising record for Europe, attracting 16 billion euros ($19.6 billion). The challenge now is for these and other cash-rich funds to find new investments, creating advisory opportunities for investment banks on deals pursued by this group of investors.

At the same time, the client base for investment banks that focus on buyout firms and other private investors is expanding as pension funds and family offices- -- investment vehicles set up by ultrarich investors -- and infrastructure funds increasingly compete against traditional buyout firms in the acquisition and sale of assets.

"With the amount of capital that has been raised globally, I would expect in the next few years for there to be very large buyouts of public companies or big carve outs of their divisions", said Mr. Diamandakis. "I would also expect a big focus on portfolio monetizations at this point in the cycle," as buyout firms take the advantage of the demand for assets, he said.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 21, 2018 16:11 ET (20:11 GMT)

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