Citi Raids UBS for New M&A Head for EMEA

Citigroup Inc. has hired a senior investment banker from UBS Group AG to head up mergers and acquisitions for the U.S. bank's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

Alison Harding-Jones will focus on growing Citi's market share across EMEA countries and sectors, the bank said in a release. The 47-year-old investment banker was most recently head of Asia Pacific M&A at Switzerland-based UBS.

Currently based in Hong Kong, Ms. Harding-Jones will move to London to take up her new role in October. Ms. Harding-Jones has also been appointed vice chairman of EMEA corporate and investment banking, Citi said.

Citi has performed strongly so far this year advising on M&A deals in the EMEA region. The bank is ranked atop the M&A league table for EMEA working on transactions worth a total of almost $191 billion, according to Dealogic. Bank of America Merrill Lynch ranks second, followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Some of the bigger European deals Citi has advised on this year include the $14 billion trans-Atlantic merger pact in May between chemical producers Huntsman Corp. and Switzerland's Clariant AG, and the EUR16.3 billion ($18.2 billion) bid by Italy's Atlantia SpA that same month for Abertis Infraestructuras SA, a rival toll-road operator based in Spain.

Ms. Harding-Jones replaces Wilhelm Schulz, who had been head of EMEA M&A. Mr. Schulz, who is based in London, in January became chairman of EMEA M&A and one of three co-heads of Citi's new global communications group, which resulted from the combination of its global media and telecom investment-banking divisions.

Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 21, 2017 15:37 ET (19:37 GMT)