Securitization People and Markets

Banc of America Securities has added two senior salesmen to its high-yield desk in New York, according to Tom White, co-head of global high-yield at the firm. They are Kevin Coleman, a former managing director from Morgan Stanley who left last year, and Chris Gray, who White describes as a "very senior salesperson," from Salomon Smith Barney. Gray will join this week. They will report to Mike Meyer, head of global high-yield sales. Gray and Coleman could not be reached. Vincent Lima, head of high-yield sales at Salomon Smith Barney, did not return calls.

Peconic Securities, an inter-dealer broker, has opened a high-yield operation in New York. Also known as "brokers' brokers" or "Street brokers," firms such as Peconic act as middlemen to allow sell-side desks to buy and sell each other's bonds without disclosing pricing information to their competitors. Peconic already has a convertible bond desk in Garden City, N.Y. The high-yield desk has 12 traders so far and aims to have 15-20 when it is fully staffed, say its three co-heads: Rob DePiro, Tommy Keyes, and Joe Salerno. A few of the traders have sell-side experience, while others come from competing Street brokers, such as Garban Intercapital and EuroBrokers. The firm hopes to eventually broker high-grade bonds as well, says DePiro.

Banc One Capital Markets has hired two senior high-yield analysts from Chicago-based money managers to help build its high-yield business. Dana Johnson, Banc One's head of capital markets and foreign exchange research, says he chose to focus on sectors in which the firm already has banking relationships. The firm has been beefing up its overall fixed-income effort since last fall, and recently hired Bill Wulkan to the new position of London-based capital markets head (BW, 3/17).

Barclays Capital is building up its London-based European high-yield business and is planning to hire traders and salespeople. The move comes in response to an increase in "fallen angel" credits, cross-over names and distressed debt, especially in the cable and telecom sectors, says a Barclays insider. Most recently, the firm hired a senior high-yield trader, Steve James, who joined from Schroder Salomon Smith Barney in London. James declined to comment.

The Blackstone Group has hired a stable of analysts for its recently formed structured finance group, Blackstone Debt Advisors. The addition of the four credit analysts and two financial analysts follows the hiring of Dean Criares earlier this year from CIBC World Markets as Blackstone seeks to manage a series of collateralized loan obligations. "Blackstone has been intrigued by the corporate debt markets for the last five years, and we have now established a group looking to invest in the senior secured leveraged loan asset class," said Criares, a managing director at Blackstone. He declined comment on whether Blackstone is currently working on a CLO vehicle.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods has hired Jacques de Saint Phalle to a senior position in the fixed-income group, according to several fixed-income officials familiar with the situation. He joins from Bear Stearns where he was a managing director and head of high-grade syndicate. The hire is part of Keefe, Bruyette's effort to rebuild its fixed-income operation after it was devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks. The firm recently hiredKevin Meenan and Jim Cahill, as co-heads of fixed income, and has made new research hires as well.

MMC Enterprise Risk, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan the international insurance broker, has hired Colin Lally, formerly a top securitization banker at Nomura Securities International in London, as a senior transactor. Lally will join MMC next month and report to Henry Cooke, head of European enterprise risk management transactions, and with whom he worked at Nomura. Cooke joined MMC last year. Cooke says MMC aims to use insurance capital as an alternative to bank capital for corporates seeking to transfer risk to the capital markets. This is a relatively new business for Marsh, adds Cooke. He reports to Jamshid Ehsani, who heads the business in New York. Ehsani did not return calls.

Morgan Stanley is ramping up its London high-yield desk, recently adding one salesman and a trader. The firm is also looking to add to its high-yield research team, say high-yield traders and salespeople. "They're trying hard to recruit there," notes one. So far, Morgan Stanley has hired Tom Crystal, a salesman, formerly of ABN AMRO, which integrated its high-yield and investment-grade businesses earlier this year. In addition, Brian Eastwood has joined from Goldman Sachs to trade distressed debt. Crystal and Eastwood, who could not be reached for comment, will report to Pedro Urquidi, head of high-yield sales and trading. A spokeswoman at Goldman was unable to confirm Eastwood's departure by press time. A spokesman at Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Fixed-income officials are beginning to question whether a $200-400 million high-yield bond offering by chemical company Solutia Inc. will go forward in the first half of this year as company officials have said it will. Solutia was recently downgraded by Standard & Poor's, and one person familiar with the proposed deal says bankers are still reviewing whether they want to proceed with it, given the company's involvement in PCB-related litigation. Salomon Smith Barney andBanc of America Securities are leading the deal. Bankers at both firms either declined to comment or could not be reached.