Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) reportedly has asked for Treasury approval to issue retention bonuses to staff of its profitable energy trading unit Phibro for fear that staff will defect, which is a very real possibility.
For example, Citigroup recently lost Robert Morse, formerly Citigroup's Asia institutional clients group CEO and head of global investment banking, to Primus Financial Holdings Ltd., a new Hong Kong-based financial services firm with $1 billion in capital.
While at Citi, Morse helped oversee the bank's 2007 acquisition of Taiwan's Bank of Overseas Chinese for $426 million, according to The Deal Pipeline (subscribers see story).
How did the new firm woo a relatively high-profile banker from Citigroup? The rest of Primus' management team, Huan Guocang and Wing-Fai Ng, are also Citi alum, having worked together at Smith Barney at one point or another in their careers. Guocang, currently CEO of private equity firm Primus Pacific Partners, and Morse are co-chairmen, while Ng, currently a managing partner with Primus Pacific Partners, is the chief executive.
Guocang and Ng are also co-founders of Primus Pacific. The new firm offers insurance, banking, brokerage, advisory and wealth management services. Morse told Reuters Primus plans to open an office in New York to build out a fixed-income group and will also manage an alternative investment platform, focusing on distressed debt in the U.S. and emerging market private equity. - Baz Hiralal and Matthew Wurtzel
See Primus' announcement
See earlier story about Phibro from Dealscape
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