Citigroup Hires Four for Its North America Leveraged-Loans Desk

(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. hired four people to expand its leveraged-credit sales and trading team in North America.

The bank added Bill Olin and Shea Parrish, two Boston-based bankers joining from Barclays Plc, for its high-yield sales and loan-sales teams, respectively, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News.

Citigroup also rehired Marc Aiello, who’s based in Houston, from Royal Bank of Canada for its high-yield trading team. Anand Ramachandran, who most recent was at Regions Financial Corp. and also spent more than a decade at JPMorgan Chase & Co., will join the loan-sales team in New York.

Also, Bollie Shiflett was promoted to head of North America loan sales.

While replacing some departures, the hires in total expand Citigroup’s team as it aims to improve its offering in its spread-products division — a key vertical in its markets business. The bank shuttered its distressed- and municipal-credit desks last year as part of a bid to boost returns and shed capital-intensive teams.

Last week, the bank reported second-quarter revenue of $1.1 billion in its spread-products unit, up 20% from a year earlier. That helped contribute to $5.09 billion of revenue in its markets business, led by fixed income and currencies trading.