Sanjay Nayar, south Asia chief executive of Citigroup, has quit and will now be heading the first Indian operations of San Francisco-based company, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co's (KKR), one of the powerful global buyout and private equity firms, as CEO and country head.

Nayar's departure from Citigroup, after working with it for 23 years, comes after retail banking head TR Ramachandran quit to join Aviva Life Insurance Co as CEO, last month. Citi, the second largest US bank by assets, struggling to cut cost, had announced plans to slash up to 50,000 jobs globally this week. (See: Citigroup to slash 50,000 jobs worldwide)

Nayar was appointed south Asia chief executive of Citi two months back after being the CEO for one year. His departure has come as no surprise as speculation was rife that he may quit Citigroup although he had always denied it.

"Sanjay has had a distinguished career at Citi as an international manager, having held senior positions in New York and London. He has made an immense contribution to establishing Citi as the leading financial services franchise in India and throughout Southeast Asia. We wish him the best in his future endeavors," Ajay Banga, CEO (Asia Pacific), Citigroup, said in a statement.

Nayar told a television channel that he was quitting for personal reasons. "I am leaving behind a superb franchise.''

In a move that has surprised many, Citigroup announced on Thursday that it has appointed Mark Robinson who has been with the US banker for 23 years as head of Citi South Asia and he would be visiting India next week.

Robinson was heading Citibank ZAO, as Citi country officer for Russia and division head for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. He was also the division head for Turkey and Israel earlier and has worked for Citigroup in Pakistan as well as Hungary.

Industry sources say that the appointment of a foreigner as head of the bank for South Asia is very unusual as normally all foreign banks hire Indians to head its operations here.

Speculation is rife that that the real reason for appointing an expat is, Citigroup may also shed jobs in India which may not have gone down too well if an Indian was heading the operation.

Citigroup had earlier said that the job cuts may not affect its Asian operations, but Vikram Pandit, Citigroup's CEO, hard pressed to save cost and turn the bank around, may be forced to prune staff in India also, even though the Indian operations reported a profit after tax of Rs2,600 crore for the year ended March 2008.

Nayar in the meanwhile will join KKR immediately in Mumbai and set up its first office in India although KKR made the largest private equity buyout in the Indian IT industry in 2006 when it bought a 85 per cent stake in Chennai based Flextronics Software Systems for $900 million (Rs4,068 crore). (See: US private equity firm KKR buys-out 85-per cent equity in Flextronics Software)

KKR, has also bought a stake in Bharti Infratel for $250 million and it was also keen on acquiring a stake in Tech Mahindra, but due to the global  economic slowdown, the sale did not materialise.

"India is now a core part of our growing global private-equity and investment platform," said, KKR in a statement. "We believe India's compelling demographics, dynamic economy and culture of entrepreneurship will provide superior long-term investment opportunities."

"Sanjay (Nayar) is uniquely suited to build a broad-based investment platform for KKR across a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income," it added.