Citi hires Goldman veteran Friedland to boost investment banking team

By Tatiana Bautzer and Niket Nishant

July 17 (Reuters) - Citigroup C.N has hired David Friedland as co-head of North America investment banking coverage, its head of banking Vis Raghavan announced in an internal memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Friedland will join the bank after a nearly 28-year stint at Goldman Sachs GS.N, where he earned the coveted titled of partner and was most recently the head of the cross markets group. Friendland will serve alongside Jens Welter, the other co-head of North America investment banking. The former Goldman executive has worked mostly in M&A, serving as global head of M&A for the cross markets group, and heading advisory in sectors such as real estate, gaming, lodging, consumer and retail.

Raghavan joined Citigroup from JPMorgan a little more than a year ago and since then has sharply increased revenue at the investment banking division, announcing high profile hires.

In April, the bank announced the hiring of Jeff Stute, a veteran investment banker with a career spanning three decades at Perella Weinberg Partners and JPMorgan Chase as a vice chair focused on healthcare mergers in North America.

Last month, Citigroup hired Drago Rajkovic as its co-head of mergers and acquisitions from JPMorgan Chase.