Citigroup taps Goldman activist defence banker for global role

By Michael Flaherty

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup named Muir Paterson to head the bank's global team of bankers advising companies on activist shareholders, the bank announced on Monday.

Paterson, whose official title is Global Head of Strategic Shareholder Advisory, previously worked as a senior activist defence banker at Goldman Sachs Group .

The move shows that Citigroup is aiming to expand its reach into the realm of activist advisory work, a segment of banking where demand has surged in the last five years amid a wave of public campaigns by hedge funds, and occasionally mutual funds, for quick and major changes at publicly traded companies.

Paterson was the chief operating officer of the Goldman's M&A Shareholder Advisory group, a team that was formed in 2015 by combining Goldman's activist defence group and its M&A Capital Markets practice.

Before Goldman, Paterson was the director of corporate governance for Wellington Management Company and a co-founder of the Special Situations Group at Institutional Shareholder Services.

Citigroup said that Matthew Coeny, a managing director at the bank, would continue as a senior member of its activist defence practice.

(Reporting by Michael Flaherty)