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DBS Group Names Citigroup’s Gupta as Chief Executive (Update3)
By Joyce Koh
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- DBS Group Holdings Ltd., the biggest Southeast Asian bank, hired Citigroup Inc.’s Piyush Gupta as chief executive officer, ending a five-month search for a new leader after predecessor Richard Stanley died.
Gupta, 49, will join DBS in November, and his appointment is subject to regulatory approval, the lender said in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange. Gupta is Citigroup’s CEO for Southeast Asia-Pacific, the company said.
DBS, whose second-quarter profit fell 15 percent, is turning to Citigroup for a top manager for a second time in less than two years. Stanley, who was Citigroup’s top China banker before DBS hired him in February 2008, died in April after being diagnosed with leukemia.
“The focus at DBS has gone back to commercial banking, and the fact that Gupta is a commercial banker shows there will probably be no change in the bank’s strategic direction,” said Tay Chin Seng, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities who rates the stock “neutral.”
DBS rose 2.2 percent to S$12.92 at 2:30 p.m. in Singapore trading after a stock suspension was lifted. The bank’s shares have rallied 54 percent this year.
“Piyush is strategic, yet detail oriented; and has the ability to nurture high-performing teams,” DBS Chairman Koh Boon Hwee said in the release.
Beating Estimates
Koh, 59, has run DBS since Stanley’s diagnosis in January. The same week that Stanley died, Koh told a shareholder meeting that the executive was “on track” to return to work, the Straits Times reported on April 9. In an April 11 statement announcing Stanley’s death, DBS said his condition “deteriorated rapidly” in the last 48 hours.
Last month, DBS reported a smaller-than-estimated decline in second-quarter profit to S$552 million ($384 million) as income from stock broking, investment banking and wealth management rose. It joined Singapore-based rivals Oversea- Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. in reporting profit that beat analysts’ forecasts, as this year’s stock rally boosted fees.
DBS has turned to Citigroup for more than managers. The U.S. bank helped arrange DBS’s S$4 billion rights offering in December. The Singaporean lender, armed with cash from the sale, is among potential buyers of ING Groep NV’s private banking operations, people familiar with the matter said last week.
Citigroup Veteran
Gupta joined Citigroup, the bank bailed out by the U.S. government, in India in 1982. He held various executive positions at the lender including head of its Malaysian operations and head of its Southeast Asia regional markets and investment banking business.
In Malaysia, Gupta expanded Citigroup’s network from three branches to seven, and opened the bank’s first new outlet in 48 years.
“Piyush has made a tremendous contribution to Citi in his 27-year career with the bank,” Citigroup’s Asia-Pacific CEO Shirish Apte said in an e-mailed statement. “His decision to leave is a personal one and we wish him well in his future endeavours.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Joyce Koh in Singapore at jkoh38@bloomberg.net Last Updated: September 1, 2009 02:42 EDT
By Joyce Koh
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- DBS Group Holdings Ltd., the biggest Southeast Asian bank, hired Citigroup Inc.’s Piyush Gupta as chief executive officer, ending a five-month search for a new leader after predecessor Richard Stanley died.
Gupta, 49, will join DBS in November, and his appointment is subject to regulatory approval, the lender said in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange. Gupta is Citigroup’s CEO for Southeast Asia-Pacific, the company said.
DBS, whose second-quarter profit fell 15 percent, is turning to Citigroup for a top manager for a second time in less than two years. Stanley, who was Citigroup’s top China banker before DBS hired him in February 2008, died in April after being diagnosed with leukemia.
“The focus at DBS has gone back to commercial banking, and the fact that Gupta is a commercial banker shows there will probably be no change in the bank’s strategic direction,” said Tay Chin Seng, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities who rates the stock “neutral.”
DBS rose 2.2 percent to S$12.92 at 2:30 p.m. in Singapore trading after a stock suspension was lifted. The bank’s shares have rallied 54 percent this year.
“Piyush is strategic, yet detail oriented; and has the ability to nurture high-performing teams,” DBS Chairman Koh Boon Hwee said in the release.
Beating Estimates
Koh, 59, has run DBS since Stanley’s diagnosis in January. The same week that Stanley died, Koh told a shareholder meeting that the executive was “on track” to return to work, the Straits Times reported on April 9. In an April 11 statement announcing Stanley’s death, DBS said his condition “deteriorated rapidly” in the last 48 hours.
Last month, DBS reported a smaller-than-estimated decline in second-quarter profit to S$552 million ($384 million) as income from stock broking, investment banking and wealth management rose. It joined Singapore-based rivals Oversea- Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. in reporting profit that beat analysts’ forecasts, as this year’s stock rally boosted fees.
DBS has turned to Citigroup for more than managers. The U.S. bank helped arrange DBS’s S$4 billion rights offering in December. The Singaporean lender, armed with cash from the sale, is among potential buyers of ING Groep NV’s private banking operations, people familiar with the matter said last week.
Citigroup Veteran
Gupta joined Citigroup, the bank bailed out by the U.S. government, in India in 1982. He held various executive positions at the lender including head of its Malaysian operations and head of its Southeast Asia regional markets and investment banking business.
In Malaysia, Gupta expanded Citigroup’s network from three branches to seven, and opened the bank’s first new outlet in 48 years.
“Piyush has made a tremendous contribution to Citi in his 27-year career with the bank,” Citigroup’s Asia-Pacific CEO Shirish Apte said in an e-mailed statement. “His decision to leave is a personal one and we wish him well in his future endeavours.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Joyce Koh in Singapore at jkoh38@bloomberg.net Last Updated: September 1, 2009 02:42 EDT