Merrill Lynch is combining its capital markets and leveraged finance management hierarchy in a bid to move up the leveraged finance league tables. As part of the changes, Todd Kaplan, head of leveraged finance, will add equity and debt capital markets to his mandate. Jeff Edwards, who had overseen debt and equity capital markets, takes charge of origination for the Americas, which includes all industry banking groups excluding financial institutions. Andrea Orcel, new head of origination for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, retains oversight of financial institutions banking. They either did not return calls or referred them to a spokeswoman.
"We're unhappy with leveraged finance. We want to be in the top five in all high-margin businesses," said Jessica Oppenheim, spokeswoman, who confirmed the changes. Merrill currently ranks 10th in high yield bonds and 14th in leveraged loans underwriting, according to Bloomberg data. Merrill has recently made a series of senior-level hires for high-yield origination in New York and London as part of this effort (BW, 8/9).