In order to improve the fee from the arranging of deals, Citigroup Inc. has appointed Tony Osmond from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as the head of its Australia and New Zealand investment banking business.

In a recently made post, it has been informed that Osmond will be based in Melbourne and will be reporting to the Australian Global Banking Chief, Chris Knoblanche. It was confirmed by the Citigroup Spokeswoman, Judy Hitchen, today.

The hiring of Osmond is part of a move by the banking major to appoint senior bankers at its institutional clients and capital management divisions. Osmond earlier was operating the Goldman’s Australian mergers and acquisitions business.

It has been cited in a report compiled by Bloomberg that after JPMorgan, Citigroup has become the ninth ranked arranger of mergers and acquisitions this year.

Knoblanche stated in an e-mail that the main aim is not to build size, but to appoint individual bankers who can add more to the value and dimension of the business.

“As a region, we continue to benefit from ties to growth in emerging markets and a sound local business and financial sector”, Knoblanche added.

There are reports that the takeovers in Australia’s mining industry can turn down the slump after the clash over the mining tax was resolved by new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard last week.