Citi Australia and New Zealand announced the appointments of Ben Connolly and Philippe Perzi as co-heads of capital markets and advisory, subject to local regulatory approval. Connolly is currently managing director and head of real estate for Citi in Australia and New Zealand. Connolly has over 18 years of experience across Australia, Europe and the UK advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions. Perzi joins Citi from Goldman Sachs where he was managing director and head of financial institutions group. Perzi has over 20 years of experience working across mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and delivering leveraged and structured finance solutions to clients. Connolly and Perzi will report to Jan Metzger, Citi’s head of investment banking for Asia Pacific and locally to Mark Woodruff, Citi Australia CEO. Both Connolly and Perzi will be based in Sydney. Mark Woodruff said, “We are delighted to be promoting Connolly to co-lead the capital markets and advisory business and to welcome Philippe to Citi. Our capital markets and advisory team is a leader in the market, with deep bench strength. This appointment reflects our continued strong investment into our business to ensure we are delivering the best of Citi to our clients.” Jan Metzger added, “Australia is a critically important market for the Citi franchise. The appointment of both Connolly and Perzi is reflective of our continued investment in, and growth aspirations for our Australian business. Under their leadership, Citi is well-positioned to capitalise on the strong momentum we are seeing in our Australian and Asia Pacific franchise.” Citi Australia and New Zealand’s capital markets and advisory business has had a strong start to the year, acting as financial advisor to Charter Hall Group on the takeover of Hotel Property Investments and financial advisor to Carlyle on its bid for a majority stake in Waste Services Group. Additionally, Citi is currently acting as defence advisor to Insignia Financial. Within the first three months of 2025, Citi’s debt capital markets business has helped Australian and New Zealand issuers raise $9 billion in offshore markets, including the largest Australian bank USD trade since 2022. After a long and distinguished career across the Citi Australia franchise and more recently as vice chair for Japan, Australia and North Asia, Tony Osmond has informed us of his decision to retire from Citi. Osmond will remain with Citi until 2026 to ensure a smooth transition to the new leadership. Osmond joined Citi as head of banking, capital markets and advisory for Australia and New Zealand in 2010, before moving into a vice chair role in 2022. During this time Osmond has been a valued leader and an outstanding contributor to the growth of the advisory business. Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker
