Citigroup has rejigged its debt capital markets leadership team in London as part of the bank's efforts in ESG and corporates in Europe. There is also a reshuffle in its sovereign, agency and supranational business.
Philip Brown, who is global head of sustainable debt capital markets, will now oversee all ESG debt financing products. In addition to sustainable DCM for investment-grade and emerging markets, Brown will be responsible for ESG for the loans and leveraged finance businesses within debt financing. Sanaa Mehra will continue to report into Brown as EMEA head of sustainable DCM.
"We are very focused on ensuring all our debt teams across IG DCM as well as loans and leveraged finance continue to integrate effectively in the regions and across ESG to offer the best to our clients," said Simon Francis, head of EMEA debt financing.
The US bank expects this approach to generate more opportunities, according to William Weaver, head of EMEA DCM. "The sustainable finance market started with the world’s supranationals and agencies promoting green bonds, and that market has grown beyond SSA to corporates and high-yield now and moved into the loan world. It was a natural evolution to combine leveraged finance, loans and bond businesses in the sustainable finance space."
Brown, who was also head of global sovereign, agency and supranational DCM, will now become chairman of that business, focusing on key clients. Ebba Wexler will step up to become the new head of global SAS, reporting to Weaver. Wexler was a senior managing director in the SAS DCM team.
Alex Barnes, as head of global SAS syndicate, will continue to work in close partnership with Wexler and Brown. Brown will report jointly to Weaver and Francis.
In corporates, Tomas Lundquist, who was head of European corporate DCM, will become chairman of the business, continuing to cover key clients across Western Europe. As a result, Tommaso Ponsele and Colm Rainey will become co-heads of European corporate DCM. All report into Weaver.
Ponsele will continue in his role as co-head of CEEMEA DCM, but the other co-head, Iman Abdel Khalek, will take on more leadership and day-to-day management.
The bank is also seeking to use its corporate resources in the high-yield arena. To that effect, the high-yield corporate bond coverage will be supported by existing DCM team members. Fabio Barbera, Bruno Saenz de Miera, Christian Monegard and Ferdinand Haindl will lead the coverage in addition to their responsibilities in the investment-grade space in their respective regions of Italy, Spain and Portugal, Nordics and the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
"It’s not an expansion in terms of head count but we are looking to utilise our current resources efficiently. We have asked senior professionals in the IG corporate team that know the geography very well to take incremental responsibilities to originate high-yield deals in their regions," said Weaver.
Updated story: Adds quotes, colour on high-yield coverage