Larry McCarthy will join Lehman Brothers today as managing director and head of distressed trading. He reports to Alex Kirk, head of high yield, according to a Lehman high-yield official with knowledge of the situation. McCarthy had been trying to negotiate the move for over a month (BW, 2/3). Neither he nor Kirk returned calls. It could not be determined who, if anyone, McCarthy is replacing.
McCarthy is one of two former high-yield veterans from DrKW-Grantchester Securities who have found spots at other sell-side firms in recent days. Ken Silver recently joined CRT Capital as a senior v.p. and high-yield analyst reporting to Chris Young, head of sales and research. Silver spent some 10 years at Grantchester covering a variety of sectors including metals, mining and media. Young says Silver will take on other responsibilities as well, such as paper and forest products and distressed or special situations research. He adds that more hires are forthcoming as part of CRT's plan to grow its high-yield business (BW, 2/9). A call to Silver was not returned.
Grantchester made large-scale cutbacks late last year (BW, 12/15), and a number of ex-employees have landed in various high-yield posts on the Street (BW, 1/26, 2/9, 3/9). A call to John Pecora, the head of Grantchester, was not returned.