Citi rainmaker King joins Barclays Capital
BARCLAYS Capital, the fast-growing division of Barclays that includes the US operations of fallen Lehman Brothers, has hired former Citigroup deal maker Tom King.
King, who quit Citigroup five weeks ago saying he wanted to “pursue other interests”, was named co-head of corporate finance reporting to head of global investment banking Hugh “Skip” McGee.
The appointment of King was announced on the same day that Barcap said former co-head of corporate finance Jospeh Gatto would move to the newly-created position of chairman of investment banking for the Americas. King’s appointment was viewed in the City as a further strengthening of Barcap’s ranks as chief executive Bob Diamond drives its transformation into a full-service investment bank.
Over the past few months Barcap has hired senior bankers from UBS, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Rothschild among others. King, who was most recently Citigroup’s head of banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will work alongside New York-based Ros Stephenson at Barcap.
He made his name as one of Wall Street’s leading telecoms bankers during the 1990s merger boom at the then Salomon Brothers, which was later, merged into Citigroup as Salomon Smith Barney. Moving to London in 1999, he worked on deals including BHP Billiton’s $147bn (£90bn) aborted offer for Rio Tinto and Vivendi’s sale of Universal Entertainment to NBC.