Mumbai: Citigroup Inc is likely to sell its captive back office unit in India – Citigroup Global Services - to Tata Consultancy Services for close to $500-550 million as the global lender reorganises its Asia Pacific operations.

Citi has reorganised its operations into four geographic clusters and seven product groups in order to achieve greater client focus and product excellence, its Asia Pacific CEO Ajay Banga said.

Media reports said TCS, India's top software firm, has edged out IBM in the race for the Citi BPO unit, which will guarantee TCS business from Citigroup for five years.

Citigroup, which plans to outsource back office operations, has been on the lookout for a buyer for the assets of Citigroup Global Services for some time now. The deal is expected to be announced within three weeks, reports said.

Post reorganisation, Citi's regional business heads in the Asia-Pacific region will have more authority.

While Ajay Banga will lead the organisation in Asia Pacific as the chief executive, the region will have four geographic clusters – Japan, North Asia, South Asia and South East Asia Pacific.

These clusters will cover seven products and customised groups – consumer banking and global cards; corporate and commercial bank; global transaction services; investment banking; markets; wealth management and alternative investments.
 
Shengman Zhang, president, Citi Asia Pacific, will manage the Citi Country Officer network across the region on regulatory and senior client relations and will report to  Banga. He will also be Citi country officer for Hong Kong.
 
The four geographic clusters will also have separate chief executives, who will oversee all Citi businesses in the respective geographies, and report to Banga.
 
Doug Peterson is CEO for Japan; Stephen Bird leads North Asia comprising China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan; Sanjay Nayar heads South Asia comprising Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka and Piyush Gupta leads South East Asia Pacific comprising Australia, New Zealand, Guam and the ASEAN countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam.

Stephen Bird heads consumer banking and global cards, in addition to his North Asia cluster role; Farhan Faruqui heads corporate and commercial banking; Anthony Nappi heads global transaction services; Mark Renton and Dan McNamara heads the investment banking business; Rodrigo Zorrilla and David Ratliff jointly heads markets and are responsible for Citi's combined fixed income business, currencies and commodities and equities businesses while Aamir Rahim, previously co-head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, has been appointed head of global wealth management, Asia Pacific.
 
Ajay Banga himself will lead alternative investments and define the regional growth strategy for this business.

''This new organisational structure for Citi Asia Pacific takes full advantage of Citi's global experience, capabilities and franchises while being empowered and structured to deliver the best for our clients locally," said  Banga.
 
''These changes to the Asia Pacific organisation will strengthen partnership between geographies and businesses. It will leverage local expertise and thinking, eliminate management layers and provide growth opportunities for our best people. This new structure also is expected to increase our ability to build our business and grow with our clients in this dynamic region," he said.
 
Andrew Butcher heads operations and technology. Terry Endsor heads human resources while Brad Hu is responsible for Risk. Nick Lyall heads finance and strategy. Chief administrative officer Martin Wong Legal will head compliance, corporate communications and government liaison.
 
The restructuring aims at better integration of the organisation after the acquisition of Nikko Cordial in Japan and Bank of Overseas Chinese in Taiwan.