Fortis Financial Services, a U.S. sell-side arm of Belgian banking giant Fortis, is setting up a U.S. collateralized debt obligation origination group and as has hired a team of five bankers from SG Corporate and Investment Banking to staff the effort. The five, led by Jimmy Frischling, head of the U.S. CDO group at SG CIB in New York, started at Fortis in New York last week. The other four professionals to join Fortis are Spencer Parker, Alejandro Videla, David Nochimowski and Max Marquardt.
One of the new hires confirmed the moves and said the team has been brought in to structure and underwrite structured credit vehicles of dollar-denominated assets and distribute them to U.S. investors. Frischling did not return a call by press time.
The team reports to Ralf Bauer, global head of structured credit for Fortis in Brussels.
This marks the second time in recent years Fortis has beefed up its presence in the U.S. structured finance market. In late 2003, it hired market veteran Blake Murphy to set up a $1 billion proprietary investment book (BW, 10/6/2003). He remains at the bank.
At SG, the team had reported to Greg Medcraft, managing director and global head of securitization in New York. Jim Galvin, spokesman, noted Rob Pak and Natalie Medlicott, two officials at the bank, have been appointed to lead the U.S. CDO team on an interim basis. Galvin added Medcraft is currently looking to find permanent replacements for the departed professionals.
