Merrill Lynch is recruiting Jack Mann to co-head leveraged finance and revive its high-yield operation according to LMW sister publication BondWeek. 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 fixed-income official familiar with 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, 12/16/01, 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.