Schell to Citi
Citigroup has hired Michael Schell to become vice-chairman of global banking from law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he was senior partner and senior member of the mergers and acquisitions group. Schell will take up his position at the beginning of August. This is the second senior hire by Citigroup into its advisory business in two months, following the recruitment of Raymond McGuire from Morgan Stanley in May.
Bank buyers
In a month of cross-border banking deals, Bank of America said it would pay $3 billion for a 9% stake in China Construction Bank (see Asia news, this issue), while France's BNP Paribas said it would pay $1.36 billion for US mortgage lenderCommercial Federal Corp.
Cablevision tunes up
In the latest large public-to-private plan, the Dolan family that controls US Cablevision proposed to take the company private in a $7.9 billion deal and spin off its cable networks, sports teams and entertainment properties into a separate publicly listed company.