Citi Hires Karen Phin

Citi hires Karen Phin to head Capital Management Advisory for Australia and New Zealand

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Continues to hire senior bankers for local business

Sydney, March 23, 2010: Citigroup today announced the appointment of Karen Phin as a Managing Director, Capital Management Advisory within Global Banking. Karen joins from ASIC, where she was a senior specialist. Prior to that, she spent 12 years at UBS in Australia, most recently leading the Capital Management team.

Chris Knoblanche, Co-head of Global Banking for Australia and New Zealand, said, "Capital Management Advisory is a core element of our offering to companies in Australasia, and noone in this market is better qualified to provide this service than Karen. She is an industry leader when it comes to advising companies on efficient balance sheet management, capital structure and funding. These capabilities, combined with Citi's reach into local and offshore debt and equity markets, will be unsurpassed."

Karen's appointment is a milestone in Citi's plan to recruit senior bankers to build client and product coverage. Other recent senior hires in Global Banking include Brett Mitsch and Brett Hamner, both who join this year as Directors. Brett Mitsch started his career as an Associate at Chase Manhattan Bank, before moving to Lehman Bros and Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining Citi, he was with TRUenergy as a senior manager in the corporate strategy and business development team. Brett Hanmer was most recently Head of Corporate Banking at Deutsche Bank and previously held coverage roles in New York and London.

Stephen Roberts, Country Officer for Citi Australia and CEO of the Institutional Clients Group, said: "We have been working for the past six months on employing some of the best in the local market as part of a plan to build our client and product coverage. Karen's appointment is representative of the calibre of people we have been seeking at all levels. We are making senior hires in investment banking, the markets business, investment research and transaction services."

Other appointments Citi has made this year in the Australian institutional business include:

* Mike Greenwood, one of Australia's leading energy analysts, who will be joining from JPMorgan where he is a franchise leader in equity research.
* Andrew Berg who will be joining Global Banking, also from JPMorgan. He will be a Vice President in the Real Estate banking group.
* Rob Jahrling who will be joining the Capital Markets Origination team as a Vice President in equity syndication. He was previously with Deutsche Bank, where he was a Vice President in equity syndicate in Hong Kong.
* Michael Hull who joined the firm in February as Head of Equity Trading, Australia and New Zealand. He was most recently a principal of a local hedge fund, and prior to that held a number of roles at Merrill Lynch including Head of Equity Trading in Australia and Pan Pacific, and Head of European Equity Derivative Trading.

"Citi has had a strong start to the year in investment banking in Australia. We have completed some of the largest debt and equity deals, dominated much of the trading in Australian stocks and fixed income securities, and we are advising on significant M&A transactions," said Stephen Roberts.

Citi was joint bookrunner on a US$3.5 billion global bond issue for Commonwealth Bank of Australia last week; joint lead manager and underwriter for a A$2.5 billion equity offering for Woodside; and provided defence to Arrow Energy on the US$2.96 billion bid for Arrow Energy by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina Co.

Citi
Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.au.

Media Contact:
Judy Hitchen
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SOURCE: Citi