ACA Capital, the New York-based financial insurance company, has hired David Lee from Mountain Capital as a v.p. in the structured finance and asset management group. He started Aug.1 and will focus on retail, some consumer products and home building. Lee joins John Veidis, another recent alum of Mountain Capital, the loan asset management arm of The Mizuho Corporate Bank. Veidis started at ACA in January. Vincent Ingato, managing director and portfolio manager for ACA's corporate credit products, left Mizuho as the co-head of leveraged finance in October 2003. Ingato hired Lee at Fuji Bank more than 10 years ago.
"We hired [Lee] for several reasons," explained John Haltmaier, managing director and head of corporate research, to whom Lee will report. "One is that he had worked with Vinny for a number of years at Mountain Capital. Secondly, he is a very experienced credit analyst working within the CLO environment and has covered several industries and also has a lot of excellent long term relationships with people on the loan sales desks."
The group will be looking to hire more individuals as it continues to expand its business, Haltmaier explained, but does not have plans to add any more immediate staff. "As we continue to expand the business, we will frequently be looking for highly qualified professionals," he said. The research team currently has eight analysts covering 22 industries. ACA is scheduled to close its first CLO this week.
"We had told the market when we went out with our first CLO that we were going to supplement our staff with competent and experienced people as we grew assets under management. David fits that category and John fits that category," Ingato explained.
Prior to joining ACA, Lee was with Mizuho and its predecessor Fuji Bank since 1994, most recently as a v.p., corporate finance in the relationship management group. He covered various industries, including homebuilding, diversified manufacturing, and media and telecom. Before that he worked in corporate finance for Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. for three years and at PNC Bank, where he started his career.