BB&T Capital Markets, a securities house that recently started a high-yield business, is looking to expand its high-yield research and sales efforts by hiring an analyst and a handful of salesmen for its new office in Red Bank, N.J. The firm is on the verge of hiring a head of high-yield research and also plans to bring on professionals to distribute high-yield bonds. The hires are new and are part of the firm's plans to form a staff of roughly 35 professionals engaged in the high-yield and convertible bond secondary markets.
Ted Luse, head of fixed income in Richmond, Va., says the hires are expected to be approved in the coming days and are part of a natural progression within the firm. He declined further comment until the hires are approved internally. The broker-dealer jumpstarted its corporate bond business earlier this year when it hired two high-yield traders from Raymond James & Associates (BW, 5/19).