CXO, COFRA and Citi: Top 5 Stories of the Week

The CFO Summit: The Chief Value Officer

“It’s about saying no,” says Louis Gargour, CIO and CFO of Market Securities Wealth. 

The panel discussed how the role of the CFO is changing with a refined stress on identifying value, including investment strategy and pinning down where capital has the most effect. 

The CFO Summit panel took place on the second day of BizClik’s inaugural CXO Summit, which welcomed over 500 professionals across finance, HR, business and marketing. 

Taking place over two days, the CXO Summit brought together over 50 speakers to focus on four core topics: expertise in finance, business, HR and marketing leadership. 

Joining Matt High, moderator, on stage at the CFO Summit panel was Louis Gargour, CIO and CFO of Market Securities Wealth, Nauman Mian, CFO of Bayt.com, Sandeep Dama, CFO and COO at Redsand and Abel Martins Alexandre, Founder and Managing Partner at Melody Investments and Advisory. 

US$1bn Funding Round Announced for Leidos & Analogic Venture

Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BCXI) announces it is leading a US$1bn round of funding for the joint venture announced earlier in the year between investment firm Atlaris and Leidos. 

Atlaris manages over US$9bn in equity capital, and has invested in more than 50 companies since its founding in 2003.  

Leidos Holdings announced a partnership with Atlaris’ Analogic for a joint venture agreement which aims to improve security infrastructure in airports and borders in April earlier this year. 

COFRA Names Former Unilever Executive as New CFO

COFRA Holding has announced that Henry Schirmer will become the firm’s newest Chief Financial Officer, effective 1 January 2027. 

His appointment is still subject to approval by the company's supervisory authorities.

Henry succeeds Florian Brenninkmeyer, who was recently named the group’s next Chairman of the Board of Directors. Following his departure as CFO, Florian will take on the chairman role in April 2027.

With Henry in the role, COFRA will gain an internationally experienced executive finance chief at the C-suite level.

Currently, Henry serves as COFRA’s Chief Family Ownership Officer and has held the position since 2024. In this role, he works closely with the owner family and company management.

Prior to working at COFRA, he served as CFO of Dutch staffing services provider Randstad. Before that, he was responsible for Europe and North America as finance chief at Unilever.

Henry also sits on the Board of Directors of General American Investors and on the board of the German-Dutch Chamber of Commerce.

Bank of America US$1.2bn Fine to Impact Quarterly Earnings

Bank of America has been handed a US$1.2bn penalty by US regulators following widespread failures to identify money laundering and other illicit financial activity.

According to the Treasury, the bank neglected to flag more than US$5bn in suspicious transactions to the US government, of which US$1bn presented national security and financial risks.

Among the failures were transactions potentially tied to Chinese money laundering networks and trade-based laundering that went unreported.

The penalty was announced less than 24 hours before the bank was scheduled to reveal its third-quarter earnings for 2026, which it acknowledges will be significantly affected by the size of the fine.

Bank of America confirmed its third-quarter results "will include a non-tax-deductible charge of US$1.2bn, impacting net income by approximately US$0.17 per share."

The bank added: "We have already dedicated substantial personnel and resources to our ongoing remediation efforts, and those costs are in the current expense base."

Citi Announces Q3 2026 Results, Beats Profit Estimates

In its results for Q3 2026, Citi reported a net income of US$5.2bn on revenue of US$23.8bn this week, with its fixed-income desk recording the firm’s best third quarter in a decade.

Fixed-income markets revenue reached US$4.4bn, marking a 4% increase from the same period a year earlier, driven by growth in spread products and foreign exchange. 

The results surpassed the expectations of industry analysts, who predicted a fixed-income revenue of US$4.3bn. At US$2.85, earnings per share also cleared the analyst consensus, which was at US$2.65 per share. 

Additionally, Citi reported that equity markets revenue rose 14% to US$1.7bn, citing growth in prime services.

Revenue of US$23.8bn was 8% higher than the previous year, topping the US$23.7bn consensus figure. These results compare with net income of US$3.8bn, or US$1.86 per diluted share, on revenue of US$22.1bn in the third quarter of 2025.

Discussing the results, Jane Fraser, CEO of Citi, says: “We expect to exceed this year's return target, even as we pull forward investments toward our 11–13% near-term goal.”