Citi's commercial banking arm has appointed Eric Au as director of capital markets for Asia Pacific in a move designed to foster greater cooperation between the US bank's different operations.
In a statement on Monday, Citi said Au will report to Ken Poon, head of capital markets origination for Citi in Asia, and Rajat Madhok, Citi’s middle market commercial banking head for Asia.
“Commercial banking clients are increasingly turning towards the capital markets to fund their growth,” Poon said in the release, adding that it was a strategic priority for the US bank in Asia to continue tapping into that growth.
Hong Kong-based Au will help to partner up various divisions of the bank, including capital markets origination, corporate and investment banking, and commercial banking.
As the bank re-aligns its businesses globally to better reflect the areas in which it can be more competitive, Asia on the whole continues to prove its importance to the group.
A former executive director and head of client solutions Asia for Standard Chartered, Au also spent seven years at Royal Bank of Scotland/ABN AMRO as head of South China local corporate coverage.
Poon said the bank is increasingly identifying diverse opportunities to raise capital for clients across equity, bond, and loan markets.
Citi Commercial Bank, Citi’s commercial banking entity, has a pan-Asian presence, operating in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It has also hired some 100 bankers in the past 12 months, according to Citi.
Companies with annual sales of up to $500 million fit the profile of Citi Commercial Bank's clients, as well as companies with cross-border needs and vendors and suppliers of Citi’s large corporate clients.
Citi has raised more than $100 billion for its clients across Asia in the last 12 months. That includes the $878 million initial public offering in Hong Kong of commercial banking client Luye Pharma, Beijing Digital’s flotation, and a follow-on share offering in India for Make-My Trip.
