Health-Care Banker Chris Hite Leaves Citi for Royalty Pharma

(Bloomberg) -- Chris Hite, a top Citigroup Inc. health-care dealmaker, is leaving the firm.

Hite, head of the New York-based bank’s global health-care group for 12 years, will join Royalty Pharma, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked to not be identified because the matter is private. Royalty Pharma is a private company that invests in revenue streams from drugs.

Citigroup said Hite was leaving the firm for an “important” client in a memo Wednesday without identifying the firm.

A representative for Citigroup confirmed the contents of the memo. A representative for Royalty Pharma didn’t respond to requests for comment.

A well-known dealmaker in the space, Hite’s transaction list includes the largest-ever pharmaceutical deal: Celgene Corp.’s $74 billion sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. last year. He’s also done a number of transactions for Roche Holding AG and worked on Shire Plc’s $62 billion sale to Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. as well as GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Pfizer Inc.’s deal to combine their consumer-health businesses. His most recent deal was last month’s sale of Dermira Inc. to Ely Lilly for $1.1 billion.

He joined Citigroup in 2008 from Lehman Brothers, where he had been head of health-care investment banking.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nabila Ahmed in New York at nahmed54@bloomberg.net;Ed Hammond in New York at ehammond12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Matthew Monks, Ben Scent

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.