Citigroup shuffles managers to form alternative assets group
In Citigroup's latest management shuffle, the New York bank is hanging on to one prominent investment banker but losing another.
Citigroup is creating an "alternative asset group" within its investment bank that will cater to private equity and infrastructure funds, combining two divisions that had been under separate leadership, according to an internal Citigroup memo from Tuesday.
Chad Leat, a vice chairman in Citigroup's investment bank, is taking on a new role as chairman of the alternative asset group.
Brad Coleman—the head of the U.S. "financial entrepreneurs group," which serves buyout firms—will be the new division's chief executive.
The group's creation is the first in what is expected to be a flurry of reorganizations within the investment bank in coming weeks as John Havens, the division's new head, looks to put his stamp on the unit.
Leat has been leading efforts to downsize Citigroup's bulging book of leveraged-buyout loans.
With investors shunning risky loans, the portfolio has lost value, forcing Citigroup to record several billions of dollars in write-downs.
Leat recently managed to sell about $12 billion of the loans, easing some of the pressure on Citigroup.
But with private-equity firms including TPG recently wooing Leat with job offers, he was considered likely to leave Citigroup, according to people familiar with the matter.
While Havens managed to retain Leat, he's losing another high-profile banker in the process.
Kamal Tabet, who had been running the global financial-entrepreneurs group out of London, is getting displaced in the reorganization and will go on sabbatical through the end of the year.
It isn't clear if he will return to Citigroup after the sabbatical.
—David Enrich, (212) 416-2595, david.enrich@wsj.com1
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