Citigroup has appointed Servaas Chorus as head of global capital management (GCM) for Asia Pacific, replacing Jason Rekate, according to an internal memo seen by FinanceAsia.
Chorus, currently Citi’s head of China corporate finance, will relocate from Shanghai to Hong Kong for the new role. He will report to Gerry Keefe, recently appointed head of Asia-Pacific corporate banking, as well as global head of GCM Jeroen Fikke.
The appointment will come into effect on August 18, according to the memo co-signed by Keefe, Fikke and Mark Slaughter, head of Asia-Pacific corporate and investment banking.
Citi’s GCM business is responsible for managing the bank’s loan portfolio for institutional clients. As of the end of the June, Citi had about $70 billion in loans to institutional clients, including some of China’s biggest corporations.
The US lender was the only bank that was involved in syndication of loans worth a combined $9 billion for China’s three tech giants – Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent – this year.
Chorus’s key responsibilities will include risk management, maximising return on capital, as well as making sure the loan business aligns with client management strategies. He will also be responsible for managing Citi’s leverage finance portfolio in Asia Pacific.
In addition, Chorus will continue to oversee Citi’s China corporate finance business until the bank finds a replacement.
Long-serving Chorus joined Citi’s global banking division in 1999 and spent 11 years in Europe before moving to New York in 2010. He relocated to Shanghai to lead the bank’s China corporate finance business in 2014.
Rekate will relocate to Tokyo and lead the bank’s corporate banking business in Japan.
