(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. tapped Philip Drury to lead a new investment-banking group focused on advising companies in technology, media, entertainment, data and telecommunications.

Drury, who currently leads the banking, capital markets and advisory unit in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will move to San Francisco for his new role as global head of the technology and communications group, according to a memo to staff signed by Tyler Dickson and Manolo Falco, global heads of the BCMA division.

“Tech and comms is one of the fastest growing franchises in global banking, capital markets and advisory and represents one of the greatest opportunities to close our competitive gap,” Dickson and Falco said in the memo.

The move brings Citigroup more in line with rivals, which have tended to combine tech, media and telecommunications groups inside their investment banks. Citigroup said uniting the two groups will allow it to more comprehensively cover the companies in those industries.

Citigroup’s investment bankers helped lift the firm to a record quarterly profit in the first three months of the year, the lender said last week. Fees from equity underwriting quadrupled, helped by the bank’s dominance in taking blank-check firms known as special purpose acquisition companies to public markets.

Mark Keene and Herb Yeh will support Drury as global heads of technology, while Gordon Kroft, Dan Richards and Wilhelm Schulz will be global heads of communications, according to the memo. Erik Arveschoug will lead the technology and communications corporate banking team globally.

Mark Hantho, who joined the firm two years ago as a vice chairman of the investment-banking division, will become chairman of the newly formed technology and communications group.

Drury will continue to lead the European investment-banking division until the firm finds his replacement, a move that will be subject to regulatory approval.

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