Bloomberg – Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank, renamed an internal hedge-fund unit Napier Park Global Capital as it spins out the business with about $6.8 billion in holdings under management.
Regulators have granted key approvals for the move, and the firm is almost done gathering consent from investors and counterparties, the New York-based lender said today in a statement. The business will contain hedge funds that have been managed by the bank’s Citi Capital Advisors unit.
Former Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, 56, oversaw the plan to spin out internal hedge funds in response to the Volcker rule, which restricts banks from making wagers with their own money. The lender is giving about 75 percent of the fund unit to managers for free, people with knowledge of the matter said in December.
“We are very pleased with the progress we have made as we prepare to officially launch Napier Park as an independent asset-management firm in the coming months,” said James O’Brien, co-head of CCA. “The support of our investors has been overwhelmingly positive and we are grateful for their partnership.”
The new name was inspired by the 16th-century Scottish mathematician and physicist, John Napier, known for his groundbreaking work on logarithms, Citigroup said.
