Blaylock & Co., a New York-based broker and investment bank, is looking to hire a slew of fixed-income professionals to build out its debt business, according to Sam Gottesman, chief operating officer. Gottesman, who joined Blaylock in March, is a well-known bond market veteran who last July left Commerzbank Capital Markets, where he was an executive director with a focus on derivative and structured products. Prior to Commerzbank, he held senior positions in trading and sales at Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch.
Blaylock currently has around 55 employees across three divisions: fixed-income sales and trading, equity sales and trading and its investment banking and capital markets business. Gottesman said the firm is refocusing on its debt business as it was the firm's core franchise. "It's a bit of a 'back to the future,'" he said. Blaylock recently converted from a partnership to a corporation, with founder, chairman and CEO Ron Blaylock remaining a majority shareholder. The focus on the debt business is part of a broader restructuring of the firm in the wake of its ownership change. Blaylock founded the company in 1993 and the firm has since opened offices in Chicago and Atlanta (BW, 12/24/03).
Gottesman explained the firm intends to hire four to five fixed-income salesmen or traders, with an emphasis on salesmen. He is looking for fixed-income generalists with a product focus on the credit markets, ideally with a combination of high-grade and high-yield experience. Blaylock's client base is mainly comprised of institutional clients with between $500 million and $10 billion in assets under management. Gottesman noted the firm, which has been active in the secondary trading of collateralized debt and loan obligations, also intends to hire one to two new issue CDO salesmen. He added the firm aims to structure its first CDO this summer.
Additionally, Blaylock is interested in building out its asset-backed coverage and plans to bring on seasoned professionals for its capital markets and investment banking business.
