Business

What the model says

Who says stock-derivative sales can’t be a sexy business?

Vikram Pandit begs to differ. The Citigroup CEO has hired former “America’s Next Top Model” contestant and MTV anchor Kim Stolz for a top job in his backwater sales shop.

Stolz, 29, is not just a vanity hire. She previously worked for the New York-based boutique trader BTIG starting in 2010.

She also interned at Goldman Sachs in 2004, according to FINRA records.

Stolz graduated in 2005 from Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in government and international politics.

According to a Bloomberg report, Citi has been looking to bolster its presence in the equity-derivative market.

Pandit, 55, is seeking to halt a slump in the equities business after revenue tumbled more than 40 percent in the 12 months ended June 30 from the previous year.

Pandit overhauled the unit in March and has since lured equity-derivatives executives from competitors including Citadel, Jefferies Group and Deutsche Bank.–Michael Gray

Mitt who?

KKR’s Henry Kravis might have just been caught being a Mitt-ocrite.

The private-equity giant, during a speech last month at an industry conference, was asked about Mitt Romney.

“I don’t know Mitt well,” he said. “I am not that close to him.”

Yet Fortune magazine reports in its latest issue that his wife, Marie-Josée Kravis, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is part of Romney’s bench of economic advisers.

With the media scrutinizing Romney’s aggressive Bain Capital activity and Kravis running a private-equity firm, there may be reason to claim ignorance.

Kravis had no comment.–Josh Kosman

Yo, Ronjo

Hotel developer Chris Jones, who bought The Ronjo Motel for $4.3 million in February with partner Larry Siedlick, and converted it into The Montauk Beach House, a high-end boutique hotel, is on the prowl for more property in the once-sleepy hamlet on the East End.

“The boutique segment in Montauk is very small,” says Jones, who is co-owner of Sole East and Sole East Beach. A former partner in Jones Lang LaSalle, he has been in the hotel business for 15 years.

He says that, even with more than 2,000 hotel rooms in Montauk, the boutique segment is only 10 percent of the market.

“You’ve essentially got 2,000 rooms by 100 days for the season, so about 20,000 room-nights in Montauk,” Jones said. He says strong demand for boutique (TMBH has been booked solid since opening six weeks ago) will force other, older properties to spend on improvements.–Julie Earle-Levine

Game reset

It’s no longer fun and games at Zynga.

In the last month, the social-gaming company has lost four top managers.

The online gamemaker’s stock is down 34 percent in the last month as it grapples with slow growth.

The newly departed include:

Erik Bethke, who oversaw “Mafia Wars 2.”

Alan Patmore, a general manager on “CityVille.”

Ya-Bing Chu, a vice president in the mobile division.

Jeremy Strauser, a general manager, also resigned.

Zynga stock has cratered 68 percent since its December initial public offering.

In an effort to stem turnover, CEO Mark Pincus recently gave all full-time employees additional stock options, which have a much lower strike price than pre-IPO options, according to sources.

Zynga shares closed Friday at $3.26 a share in Nasdaq trading.–Post staff

Bum Bain bet

There was a 950-page document dump by Gawker.com on Thursday, on the many holding companies that Mitt Romney’s former company Bain Capital had entered into both before and after Romney left the venture capital firm.

One bizarre nugget was that Romney, through a Bain-linked investment fund, was actually a lender to National Enquirer owner American Media.

Bain invested in Sankaty High Yield Partners II, which loaned American Media Operations $3.8 million in high-interest bonds.

They were to have been paid back Jan. 30 next year.

But in 2009, Sankaty, which invested in “below investment grade assets,” began liquidating after missing a payment to its partners.

At the time, Bain was still owed $1.8 million on the American Media loan. However, the note appears to have been sold off to a new owner, most likely at a steep discount.–Keith J. Kelly