Citigroup on a hiring spree in South Africa
Citigroup is South Africa's largest foreign bank and is determined to remain just that. The group, which currently employs 370 people in SA, is capitalising on faster growth in Africa's emerging markets and has been busy recruiting in research, sales and trading to expand its equities business.
Graeme Franck, new head of sales in South Africa, has just been poached from UBS where he had the same role. Johann Steyn is leaving Deutsche Bank to be a director in charge of covering South Africa's gold and platinum producers.
Other appointments are Africa-focused but based elsewhere, like that of Kato Mukuru, who has left Renaissance Capital to cover the African and Middle-Eastern banking sector from Dubai, that of Ben Cowley, who joins from Merrill Lynch as head of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) sales in London, that of Clemens Baader who joins from Deutsche Bank to be head of CEEMEA Delta 1 in London, and that of Conrad Scheurkogel who has left UBS to be Citi's head of CEEMEA sales in New York.
"This latest round of key hires is consistent with our goal of making Citi the execution house of choice in the region," said Farhang Mehregani, London-based head of CEEMEA equities. "Domestic investment banks in our regions are struggling because of a lack of capital commitment. We are coupling our local knowledge with the ability to cross local and foreign liquidity. Our clients continue to favour emerging markets exposure relative to developed markets and we remain focused on building a market-leading franchise to service their growth needs."
In July Citi had made several hires to beef up its equity derivatives team in South Africa. The US bank's stated goal is to generate half of its revenues in emerging markets.
Citi's latest move confirms the bank's long-term commitment to South Africa and shows it wants to stay ahead of a growing number of competitors, says Chris Steward, Investec's head of financials: "This re-affirms a trend we have seen in the recent past where institutions from developed nations looked at emerging markets, including South Africa, for superior growth. This is a trend we have come to expect." Two of the biggest deals in the offing in South Africa are HSBC's proposed acquisition of Nedbank and Wal-Mart's planned takeover of Massmart.
Another reason for Citi's expansion strategy is that "huge amounts of money have been flowing into South Africa's bond market", says Renier De Bruyn, analyst at Sanlam Private Investment. "Citi has realised there is a movement of money to high growth areas. They are aware that South Africa could also service investors better."
