Citi has appointed Jan Metzger to head its Asia-Pacific technology, media, and telecom operations in corporate and investment banking, highlighting the US bank’s ambition to grab a larger share of the sector's mega deals.
Metzger joined Citi on Monday from Credit Suisse, where he was the Asia-Pacific head of TMT for about 10 years, having advised on transactions totaling more than $100 billion over the course of his career, according to a memo seen by FinanceAsia.
A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman at Citi separately confirmed the appointment.
Metzger, who has a master degree in economics from Cambridge University, is based in Hong Kong and reports to Mark Slaughter, Citi's head of Asia corporate and investment banking.
"[Metzger's] mandate will be to build on the strong franchise and momentum that we have in the Asia Pacific TMT franchise and to drive further origination and execution of TMT transactions across the corporate and investment bank," Slaughter and Mark Shafir, Citi’s co-head of global M&A, said in the internal Citi memo sent to staff.
Dealmaking in the region so far this year has passed the $700 billion for only the second time on record, according to Dealogic, thanks in large part to a number of high-profile mergers in China’s technology sector, including Alibaba's $4.6 billion investment in electronics retailer Sunning Commerce.
For China-targeted mergers and acquisitions, technology led all sectors with $97.7 billion, the highest level for the period on record for any sector, Dealogic data shows.
Reflecting its growing activity Citi has risen in the investment banking revenue league table. According to data-tracking firm Dealogic, the bank's net investment banking revenue from the TMT sector in Asia, excluding Japan, puts it in second place this year, up from sixth last year.
However, overall investment banking revenes from the TMT sector in Asia have sunk to $864 million so far this year, compared with $1.5 billion in the year-ago period, according to Dealogic.
