Citigroup Hires Health-Care Investment Banker Sumit Khedekar From Credit Suisse
Citigroup Hires Health-Care Investment Banker Sumit Khedekar From Credit Suisse
(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. said Sumit Khedekar will join as head of health care for the Americas in its investment bank, as the firm continues a spree of hires.
Khedekar will join from Credit Suisse Group AG, where he held a similar role, according to a memo to Citigroup staff. He will be based in New York and start work early next year.
He will lead Citigroup’s efforts to win business with biopharmaceutical companies as part of the bank’s new investment-banking group dedicated to health care, consumer and wellness, the memo shows.
“Health care, consumer and wellness is one of the fastest-growing franchises,” John Chirico and Kevin Cox, who lead Citigroup’s banking, capital markets and advisory unit in North America, said in the memo. “The biopharma sector, in particular, represents one of our greatest opportunities for growth and for us to close our competitive gap.”
Citigroup said Thursday it’s added 200 bankers to its corporate and investment-banking arms this year. The lender has been seeking to become a Top 3 player in investment banking in recent years after reorganizing the banking, capital markets and advisory unit in 2018 under global co-heads Tyler Dickson and Manuel Falcó.
Khedekar has advised on some of the health-care industry’s most prominent deals, including several for Merck & Co. like its recent $11.5 billion agreement to buy Acceleron Pharma Inc.-- the biggest biotech deal of the year -- as well as its purchases of Pandion Therapeutics Inc. and Peloton Therapeutics Inc. He also advised Celgene Corp. on its acquisition of Impact Biomedicines and Eli Lilly & Co. on its acquisition of Novartis’s animal health business, among others.
He’ll report to Chirico and Cox. His move marks the latest departure for Credit Suisse, which has seen a spree of bankers defect in the aftermath of twin scandals that have weighed on the Swiss bank’s results.
“Drawing on his extensive industry experience and strong relationships with many leading companies in the health-care sector, Sumit will be instrumental in broadening our coverage footprint and growing our share in biopharma,” Chirico and Cox said in the memo. “His background and deep sector knowledge will be key in building on the current momentum in the franchise.”
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