(Reuters) -Citigroup has appointed JPMorgan Chase's Guillermo Baygual as co-head of mergers and acquisitions, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Thursday, as the U.S. bank seeks to grow its share of the lucrative dealmaking business.

Baygual, who has spent over 25 years at JPMorgan, most recently served as the global co-head of the largest U.S. bank's infrastructure and strategic investors group.

The appointment comes as Wall Street bankers anticipate a pickup in dealmaking in the second half of the year, with analysts expecting boardrooms to look past tariff uncertainty and antitrust headwinds to ease.

It also marks another win for Citi, which has been steadily expanding its investment banking business under Viswas Raghavan, a former JPMorgan executive who joined in 2024.

This year, Citi has advised on several major deals, including Charter Communications' acquisition of privately held Cox Communications, and Sycamore Partners' deal to take Walgreens Boots Alliance private.

"We're very pleased on the M&A front - the pipeline is excellent," Citi CEO Jane Fraser told analysts on a conference call in July, and said the bank was working on seven of the 10 largest investment banking transactions of the year.

In the first half of 2025, it ranked fourth globally among banks by M&A revenue, according to Dealogic data. It also earned the fifth-highest investment banking revenue, per the financial data provider's league tables.