Citi has made two appointments to its debt capital markets ( DCM ) franchise in Asia-Pacific – Anthony Yap will join as the bank’s DCM team’s head of leveraged finance for Australia and New Zealand at the end of August and Maria Chua will join the DCM team as a director covering leveraged and syndicated loans in Southeast Asia in July.

Yap, based in Sydney, joins the bank from HSBC, where he most recently served as head of private capital group coverage and financing for Australia and New Zealand. He has over 20 years of experience leading and structuring complex transactions across more than 20 jurisdictions in Europe and Asia-Pacific.

During his time at HSBC, he held several senior roles, including that of head of leveraged and acquisition finance for Southeast Asia. He has advised sponsors and corporate clients on some of the region’s most complex and high-profile financing transactions, and “brings deep relationships, market insight and extensive execution experience to the role”.

Chua, based in Hong Kong, joins the bank from UBS, where she most recently served as the head of leveraged finance origination for Asia. She has over 15 years of experience and “has demonstrated exceptional leadership in originating, structuring and executing bespoke financing solutions across Asia’s institutional, corporate and private wealth sectors. Her expertise spans debt advisory, syndicated loans, private credit and specialized structured finance, executing successful transactions in complex financial landscapes.”

Both will report to Adrian Khoo and Deepak Dangayach, co-heads of DCM for Asia-Pacific. Yap will have an additional local reporting line to Ben Connolly and Philippe Perzi, co-heads of capital markets and advisory for Australia and New Zealand.

The pair’s appointments, the bank says, “reflects its continued focus on building its leveraged and syndicated financing capabilities in the region”.