Stanley O'Neal, Merrill Lynch's president and coo, is recruiting Jack Mann to co-head leveraged finance and revive its struggling high-yield operation. Mann is currently manager of a leveraged buyout fund for the Carlyle Group. "No ink has been signed yet, but it's just a matter of paperwork," says one senior fixed-income official close to the situation. "I'm surprised they haven't named him already," says another official who spoke to Mann some 10 days ago. He speculates that the delay may suggest that Mann has had second thoughts about running the group, which has been subject to severe cutbacks and the departure of several senior executives (BW, 12/16, 2/11). Mann did not return several calls.
Mann was at Merrill for 14 years before he left for Carlyle in 1998. When he left Merrill he was co-head of global high-yield capital markets. The official who spoke with Mann assumes that Mann would focus on origination, while Jeff Chandler, the current head, would become a co-head running sales and trading. Another official says such details are still being worked out, but that the hire would undoubtedly spark a number of changes within the group.
Senior London officials at Deutsche Bank say that O'Neal wants to bring Tom Gahan, the German bank's head of global credit products, back into the fold. Gahan was the head of leveraged finance at Merrill until he left for Deutsche Bank in 1998. His departure, accompanied by a steady stream of defections, is widely accepted as the beginning of Merrill's demise as a high-yield power. Gahan declined comment. However, senior officials close to him say that while he is friends with O'Neal and has a standing offer to return, he is not interested in the job. Jessica Oppenheim, a Merrill spokeswoman, declined comment.