Citigroup Inc yesterday announced the appointment of Peter Babej as its new chief executive officer for the Asia-Pacific region.
Babej will be responsible for all businesses in the 17 countries and jurisdictions where Citi is present.
Before his current role, Babej served as global head of the Financial Institutions Group. Under his leadership, Citi attained a leading position in the sector and participated in numerous landmark transactions globally.
Photo courtesy of Citibank Taiwan Ltd
Over the past decade, Citi has won increasing recognition as the leading global bank for financial institutions. Under Babej’s leadership, the group has participated in some of the most significant transactions in the sector, including several Asia-driven mergers and acquisitions.
Bebej will draw on his deep knowledge of the financial services landscape in Asia, where Citi continues to see great opportunities, including fast-growing digital adoption, for which it is well-positioned given its footprint and capabilities.
Prior to joining Citi, Babej held senior roles at Deutsche Bank AG and Lazard Ltd, where he advised financial institutions across North America, Europe and Asia.
Babej will begin transitioning to this new role immediately.
Citi has performed strongly in the Asia-Pacific region. The company released its third-quarter results on Tuesday, which showed that revenue grew 7 percent year-on-year to US$4.01 billion and net income rose 10 percent to US$1.27 billion during the same period.
Asia Pacific is Citi’s second-largest region outside North America and contributes about one-fifth of revenue and close to a third of net income.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure