Morning Coffee: Top dealmaker leaves Citi after arrival of unexpected co-head. Citadel Securities likes rates sales MDs

Given the choice, it seems that Citi would prefer to have kept Anthony Diamandakis, the longstanding head of its global asset managers team, whom Financial News says left yesterday. Citi is waiting to ride the wave of private equity activity when it finally happens, and Bloomberg says Diamandakis has connections at the likes of Apollo and Sycamore Partners, which recently bought Walgreen Boots Alliance. 

Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.

It is not to be. Aged 50, Diamandakis still has many deals left in him, but he will not be doing them at Citigroup. Citi says he's retired, but it's a funny sort of retirement given that Bloomberg says he's leaving to pursue another opportunity.

Why now? It might be bonuses, which weren't the best. It might be new management. It might be bonuses and new management and the sudden arrival of a co-head with whom Diamandakis was presumably expected to share responsibilities for his team of asset management bankers. 

That co-head is Ashu Khullar, a Citi lifer who in February was parachuted to Diamandakis' side-seat to run EMEA sponsors banking out of London. Khullar was seemingly apppointed by Vis Raghavan, who's been running Citi's investment bank since last June. He seemed an unusual choice to help run Citi's key sponsor banking team team. - Khullar had been running Citi's business in India and hadn't been based in London since 2017. During his previous time in the City, Khullar was head of corporate banking for Citi in EMEA. He's worked across cash management, trade, relationship management, loan structuring and syndication, none of which sounds like the standard formation for a sponsors banker. 

Financial News notes that there have been other exits from Citi in recent weeks. They include Keith Heller, another financial sponsors banker, who's going to JPMorgan instead. The flow goes both ways. As gaps appear, Citi may fill them with Raghavan's former JPMorgan colleagues. The bank already hired Sidharth Punshi from JPMorgan to run sponsors banking in EMEA, working with Khullar in London.

Separately, Citadel Securities is making good use of the post-bonus season to stock up on senior rates sales managing directors from leading banks. 

Bloomberg reports that the market making firm has hired both Keith Cynar from Goldman Sachs and Jordan Brink from JPMorgan. Together, they will co-head US rates sales there. Their arrival comes after Citadel Securities also hired Scott Rubner from Goldman's West Palm Beach office and as rates sales people are popular recruits amidst market volatility.

Meanwhile...

UBS is threatening to move its headquarters out of Switzerland over capital requirements. (Bloomberg) 

Nomura thinks deals will be ok. “There’s still going to be a robust deal making environment, but it hasn’t been as quick to start this year as most people thought.” (Bloomberg) 

CVC says Trump's chopping and changing on tariffs is restricting dealmaking. (Financial Times) 

Barclays hired Kieran Whitty from Bank of America to run EMEA healthcare banking. (Bloomberg) 

If you haven't noticed, banks have begun cutting staff. (Reuters) 

Private equity professionals want to go to Milan, Geneva and Dubai instead of Paris. But Paris is still popular with bankers. “The biggest benefit that Paris has is Paris itself. No offense to all the other cities in Europe, they’re all fantastic cities, but I’m not sure you can compare, on a global scale, a city like Paris to many other cities.” (Bloomberg) 

A 38 year-old infrastructure banker was about to start a top private equity job. Then a 25-year-old woman accused him of rape. (NYPost) 

Citi set up an investment club for billionaires and then got annoyed when they only invested $500k. “My car cost more than this!” (Bloomberg) 

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is optimizing its APAC operations and closing its Hong Kong office. (Bloomberg) 

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)