Alex Cartel to lead Citi’s Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory for Australia & New Zealand
SYDNEY: Citi has appointed Tony Osmond to the role of Chairman, Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory (BCMA) for Australia & New Zealand.
In this new role, Tony will focus on providing trusted advice to Citi’s clients on complex transactions and supporting the BCMA leadership team in Australia and New Zealand, which encompasses all of Citi’s corporate advisory, capital markets and lending business in Australia and New Zealand.
As a result of this move, Citi has announced that Head of Corporate Finance & Advisory for Australia & New Zealand, Alex Cartel, will assume the role of Head of BCMA.
Alex joined Citi in 2020 from Deutsche Bank where he was Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking Coverage.
Commenting on the appointments, Citi Australia & New Zealand CEO, Marc Luet, said: “These appointments are reflective of our continuous investment in our institutional business and our clients and will ensure we have the capacity to meet the increasing activity. I know Tony and Alex are both looking forward to their continued partnership leading the Australian and New Zealand BCMA business.”
“Tony has led the BCMA business since 2012 and has created a positive, partnership-based workplace environment which has led to increased market share and revenues. In Australia, Citi is a leader in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets debt capital markets and corporate banking and a trusted adviser to many companies, investors and government entities.”
As a sign of Citi’s growing strength in mergers and acquisitions, in the last twelve months Tony led the Citi teams advising the Brookfield/Grok consortium on its proposed $7.5 billion acquisition of AGL, Blackstone on its proposed $9.8 billion acquisition of Crown, AusNet on its $17.5 billion acquisition by the Brookfield consortium, Boral on its response to the $9.2 billion Seven West Media takeover, and Woolworths on the $12 billion demerger of Endeavour Group.
Citi’s Head of BCMA for Asia Pacific Jan Metzger said Alex’s experience in leading transformational deals will ensure the continued growth and success of the business.
“Alex is one of Australia’s most experienced and trusted M&A and ECM advisers and was recently reappointed as President of the Australian Takeovers Panel. He has led some of the country’s largest and most complex transactions and I’m delighted that he has further expanded his role and congratulate Tony on his appointment as Chair.
Alex joined Citi in 2020 and has led the teams advising BHP on several successful transactions including the $86 billion unification of its dual listing and led the advice to Santos on its $16 billion merger with Oil Search. In that time Alex has also played key strategic advisory roles on other critical assignments for a range of clients including Ausnet and Boral.”
The announcement comes on the back of another strong week for Citi in Australia and New Zealand, as it advised on the NZ$1.9 billion sale of Waste Management NZ to Igneo and is Joint Lead Manager on the NZ$1.2 billion rights issue for Air New Zealand.
In August 2021, Citi Australia announced the sale of its consumer business to NAB as part of a global strategy refresh that will see the bank focus on its institutional business.
Citi Australia’s institutional business provides a comprehensive range of investment and banking services to approximately 1500 corporates, banks, governments, and institutional investors in Australia, as well as clients offshore. Services include capital markets and corporate advisory, markets and securities services, commercial banking and treasury and trade solutions.
