Citigroup has elevated Douglas Adams and James Fleming to global co-heads of its equity capital markets business as it makes sweeping changes to the leadership of its equity advisory team.
Fleming joined Citi last year from rival Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he ran equity capital markets for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He joined Citi in the same role as part of a broader shake-up at the top of the division that advises on Execution of capital raising mandates such as IPOs and private placements.
Suneel Hargunani, who has been working with Citi since 1999, replaces Fleming and will assume sole responsibility for the EMEA equity capital markets.
Citigroup also promoted Douglas Adams to become co-head of equity capital markets, after 26 years of leading the firm’s ECM franchise in North America.
The new promotions come as the US bank is becoming increasingly cautious about risk after a serious of failed initial public offerings and disappointing debuts.
Citi consolidates FX business
On the FX business front, Citigroup revealed plans to combine its foreign Exchange & local markets and G10 currencies units under one integrated department. The two merged operations will retain their current branding and offerings though they already have similar product suits and share sales and technology resources.
Citigroup has made changes as it conducts an enterprise-wide review in the wake of a series of consumer scandals. Citi’s FX prime brokerage unit has come under fire after losses of as much as $180 million in loans to an Asian hedge fund. The unit was reportedly pulled from the currency trading division and put instead under the oversight of the lender’s prime finance and securities services unit
Citi is the fifth-largest currency trading firm by market share last year, after the likes of JPMorgan and UBS.
