Citi hires ex-Tribridge partner to head Asia distressed

Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Author: Reuters

Citigroup (C.N) has hired John Liptak from Hong Kong-based hedge fund Tribridge Capital to head its Asia Pacific distressed and special situations group, an internal memo seen by Reuters showed.

Liptak, who has been involved in Asian distressed investing for 12 years, was a partner at Tribridge since mid-2009 where he set up its Asian distressed fund.

Prior to his stint at Tribridge, Liptak ran an 11 person special situations and distressed debt team at Bank of America (BAC.N) from 2001 to 2009. Liptak moved to Hong Kong from New York to head the special situations team at Dutch financial group ING (ING.AS).

At Citigroup, Liptak will report to David Rosa, head of Asia Pacific credit trading for the Asia ex-Japan business and to Naresh Narayan for the Japan business.

"John's client facing experience in Asia makes him a great addition to the team. Distressed is a key growth area for Citi in Asia," said Rosa.

Citi joins a growing list of investment banks that are re-building their distressed asset teams in Asia in the hope that the early economic recovery in the region and a resultant credit tightening will throw up opportunities to buy troubled assets cheaply later this year.