Subject: Re: Citigroup to Increase China Workforce to 12,000 in Three Years
From: "Michael Andrews" <[email-masked]>
To: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:15:42 -0400

Eric and Hunter-

Let me know if you do not hear from Bob Schellhas by early September.  
I will help and if he is not able to help, I will get someone who can.  
Bob is pretty good at follow through so I think he will set up meeting  
for you.

Michael

Michael
On Aug 31, 2010, at 8:01 PM, Eric Schwerin wrote:

> This was passed on to me. I emailed Bob when I got back last week   
> to follow up and haven't heard back from him.  Not sure if he is on  
> vacation or not. I think he said he was taking a "staycation" in  
> August.
>
> Eric D. Schwerin
> [email-masked]
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 31, 2010, at 7:57 PM, Hunter Biden  
> <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> Mike-
>> Speaking of Citi did we ever confirm a meeting
>> with CFO or guy we met in train station?
>>
>> R. Hunter Biden
>> 202-333-1880
>>
>>
>> On Aug 31, 2010, at 1:47 PM, Michael Andrews <[email-masked]>  
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hey guys - no way Citi assessed the political risk deeply. Stephen  
>>> Bird a very smart guy who I respect a great deal, but he has been  
>>> based in Hong Kong for a year and had been in Singapore and Tokyo  
>>> for the previous 8 years. Stephen would understand the need for  
>>> risk assesment and likely used normal suspects - celebrity firms,  
>>> information providers and functional experts but none can provide  
>>> the depth of information he likely should have to make these  
>>> decisions. I always get uncomfortable when Citi describes growth  
>>> in terms of people and branches rather than revenue.
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>> Citigroup to Increase China Workforce to 12,000 in Three Years
>>> Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
>>> By Cathy Chan
>>>
>>> Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. plans to almost triple its  
>>> workforce in China to as many as 12,000 people in the next three  
>>> years, intensifying its rivalry withHSBC Holdings Plc in the  
>>> world’s fastest-growing major economy.
>>>
>>> The New York-based bank will hire more in China than in any other  
>>> market in Asia-Pacific, Stephen Bird, Citigroup’s co-chief  
>>> executive officer for the region, said yesterday in an interview.  
>>> Citigroup has 4,500 employees in China and 50,000 in Asia,  
>>> according to spokesman James Griffiths.
>>>
>>> Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit is raising his bet on China, where  
>>> banks extended a record $1.4 trillion of new loans last year.  
>>> Unlike HSBC and Standard Chartered Plc, Citigroup has no plans to  
>>> sell shares in China and will instead fund expansion with money  
>>> generated in Asia, Bird said on Aug. 25.
>>>
>>> “China is one of Citi’s priority markets globally,” said Bird, 43.  
>>> “We have aggressive consumer banking expansion plans and want to  
>>> open branches as fast as regulators in China will let us.”
>>>
>>> Citigroup has 29 outlets in the country and plans to add 10 more  
>>> this year. That will still leave it short of HSBC’s 102 outlets  
>>> and the 59 operated by Standard Chartered.
>>>
>>> Standard Chartered, the U.K. bank that gets more than three- 
>>> quarters of profit from Asia, has more than 4,000 employees at its  
>>> China unit. HSBC, Europe’s largest lender by market value, has  
>>> more than 5,000. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. had  
>>> 390,000 workers at the end of 2009.
>>>
>>> Consumer Banking
>>>
>>> Bird said consumer and institutional banking will account for  
>>> about 80 percent of new hiring in China. The remainder will mainly  
>>> be for technology support and data processing, he said.
>>>
>>> China, which opened its banking industry to overseas companies in  
>>> December 2006, is luring foreign lenders scarred by the global  
>>> financial crisis that forced Citigroup into a $45 billion bailout.  
>>> HSBC is focusing on emerging markets like China following losses  
>>> at its U.S. unit.
>>>
>>> Citigroup almost doubled profit in China to 1.3 billion yuan ($191  
>>> million) in 2008, on a 46 percent revenue increase. The company  
>>> hasn’t published 2009 earnings for the country, Griffiths said.
>>>
>>> Asia was the largest contributor to Citigroup’s earnings in 2008  
>>> and 2009, a period during which it lost $29.3 billion. Citigroup  
>>> recorded a first-half profit of $2.5 billion for the region on  
>>> $7.26 billion of revenue.
>>>
>>> The bank is also expanding in Taiwan and Hong Kong, where it has  
>>> 66 and 41 branches respectively, Bird said.
>>>
>>> “Just a couple of years ago we were under 50 branches in Greater  
>>> China and in the next six months we should hit the 150 mark,” he  
>>> said.
>>>
>>> To contact the reporter on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong [email-masked]
>>>
>>> Last Updated: August 31, 2010 12:01 EDT
>