| Curtis Arledge |
Wachovia Securities has united its high-yield bond and leveraged loan groups and initiated a search to fill a new position overseeing the combined division, according to sister publication Corporate Financing Week."Companies are increasingly looking to fund themselves by comparing financing costs in both the bank and bond markets, and we want that to be one conversation, not two," said Curtis Arledge, head of fixed-income at the Charlotte-based bank. In the interim, Julie Bouhuys, Wachovia's head of credit products, is serving as leveraged finance head. Having a coordinated effort should help the firm land more business in both areas of the debt markets, Arledge believes. "We want to become a more dominant provider of leveraged capital," he said. Wachovia ranks fourth in deal volume for U.S. leveraged loan underwriting with 9% of the market, according to Bloomberg data. In U.S. high-yield bonds, it is 13th, with just a 1.1% piece of the pie.
Both internal candidates and people outside the firm are in the running for the post, Arledge said. He declined to name the in-house nominees or say how many there are, because the search started just last week, Wachovia has not yet put together a list of outside contenders for the spot. The fixed-income boss vows that the firm will be "talking to everybody," including the heads of the top leveraged finance units on Wall Street.
Wachovia's move is the latest stage in a reorganization it started last fall when the bank promoted then-fixed-income chief Ben Williams to oversee a new "debt markets group" that brought together loans and bonds, along with a host of other business lines.