HONG KONG, March 31 (Reuters) - $Citigroup Inc(C-N)$ is losing a Hong Kong-based veteran investment banker to Asia's rapidly growing industry of special-purpose acquisition vehicles (SPAC), people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Christopher Laskowski, a managing director at Citi and who most recently headed its Hong Kong corporate and investment bank, is joining a SPAC sponsored by investment firm MSA Capital as its CEO, said two of the people.
SPACs are blank cheque companies that raise money in an initial public offering and then use the proceeds to merge with a target company.
They have grown exponentially since last year and have already raised $92 billion in IPOs this year, exceeding 2020's annual value, according to Refinitiv data.
Laskowski's departure after nearly 24 years at Citi, the first of such move by a senior financier, underscores the increasing capital and talent that SPACs are attracting in the region.
Beijing-based MSA Capital manages over $1.5 billion in assets and invests in global leading early and growth stage technology-enabled companies, according to its website.
Its upcoming SPAC, ACS, will focus on technology sector in China, said one of the people, who declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to media.
Calls to Laskowski, who is leaving Citi this week according to one of the sources, were not answered. MSA Capital could not be reached for comment. Citigroup declined to comment.
Laskowski started at Citi in New York in 1997 and moved to Hong Kong two years later, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has since covered financial institutions, private equity and global asset managers for the bank before taking his most recent role.
(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Anshuman Daga in Singapore, editing by Louise Heavens)