Jim Zelter has moved from his post as global head of high-yield at Salomon Smith Barney to become cio of Citigroup Global Investments (CGI), the proprietary investment arm of the financial services giant.
Zelter will remain head of global distressed trading at Salomon, according to an internal memo written by Michael Carpenter, chairman and ceo of CGI. Several high-yield officials on the Street expressed confusion as to how Zelter could hold what appear to be buy- and sell-side positions at the same time. A call to Zelter was referred to Danielle Romero, a spokeswoman for SSB, who says the new global high-yield head at Salomon has not yet been determined. She referred further questions to Leah Johnson, CGI spokeswoman. Johnson says it is generally firm policy not to discuss personnel issues in detail. She said she would attempt to provide some additional clarification in this case, but did not call back by press time.
In the memo, Carpenter writes that Zelter "will have overall responsibility for the investment policies and strategies of our proprietary and customer activities. Our investment activities involving liquid securities will report directly to him (i.e. hedge funds, credit structures, etc.) He will chair some of our key investment committees such as the Risks and Opportunities Committee, Hedge Funds/Managed Futures Manager Selection Committee as well as participate in others (i.e. pensions)."
Zelter appears to be filling a spot that was held temporarily by Ahmed Fahour, but the memo, a copy of which was obtained by BondWeek, is not completely clear on this point. Fahour will now be "responsible for product development, management and distribution...and real estate," according to the memo.