Kathleen Lamb, a healthcare analyst from Credit Suisse First Boston who regularly places near the top of the rankings in the high-yield healthcare sector on the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed-Income Research Team, will retire in June, according to an official at the firm. She will be replaced by Graham Barnett, who had been working on the origination side at CSFB. Neither Lamb nor Barnett returned calls.
Lamb has a controversial reputation in the high-yield community, as evidenced by a Bloomberg message she sent out earlier this year blasting the research call of Elie Radinsky, healthcare analyst at Jefferies & Co. (BW, 1/13). Her departure has sparked a number of rumors, including assertions that she is only staying to ensure that she receives another II ranking. By staying beyond June 3, Lamb remains eligible to receive a ranking. Had she left prior to that date, she would be disqualified, says Bill Gaston, senior associate editor at Institutional Investor magazine. The CSFB official says Lamb is being paid a partial bonus, and has stayed on in order to train Barnett. He argues that II-rankings are not a priority for the firm, and that paying Lamb on the expectation that she will receive a ranking would not make sense as there is always a possibility that she would not receive one.