Securitization People and Markets

Sandler O'Neill, the niche investment-bank devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks, has hired Charles Smart and Dhiren Toolsidas, two structured product research veterans from defunct e-trading network Visible Markets, to rebuild its fixed-income quantitative analytics effort. The positions are new, and Sandler O'Neill insiders were uncertain as to who had held the positions previously. Smart and Toolsidas will report to John Doyle, the firm's head of fixed-income. Smart will be a managing director, Toolsidas an associate director. Doyle did not return a phone call seeking comment.

John Chester, head of high-yield research and the telecom analyst at TD Securities in New York, and Jacob Barker, a senior media analyst, were among the 200 layoffs recently announced by the firm, according to firm spokesman Mike Sherman. The moves have analysts inside the firm and at rival firms questioning TD Securities' commitment to its high-yield business, given that media and telecom have long been the firm's bread and butter. Mark Grotevant, now co-head of research at Credit Suisse First Boston, once led the telecom group at TD Securities. Both Chester and Barker had left the firm as of press time.

The upcoming multi-currency bond offering by Tyco International (A/Baa1) will feature a sterling tranche--a first for the company, according to a banker on the deal. Tyco officials declined to say how large the issue would be, but analysts say it should eclipse the company's E600 million bonds of '07 and may approach E1 billion. The roadshow is set to begin today.

Nomura Securities International, the global leader in yen bond underwriting, will shift its strategic mandate with the goal of making itself into a bulge bracket firm keenly focused on global fixed-income. Stefano Ghersi, the London-based head of international capital markets, says the firm has just begun to build up all of its regional groups and is broadening its product lines for debt capital markets to create a multi-currency origination and distribution platform. "This investment makes sense in the medium-term in terms of mandates and opportunities. Particularly from a debt point-of-view, there has never been a better time, because there is an increasing need for credit as a strategic resource," says Ghersi.

Deutsche Bank's asset-backed securities group has hired Bill Yeung as an ABS structurer, specializing in structuring ABS transactions, particularly home equity bonds, says Richard d'Albert, who heads the group in New York. Yeung, who last worked for Nomura Securities International in New York, fills a newly created slot, says d'Albert, although he declined to comment on additional hires.

A senior executive involved with BondBook, the dealer-owned online corporate bond trading platform, says the company will likely shut its doors by the middle of November. Layoffs of its approximately 100 employees are slated to begin soon, he says. He attributes the decision to a series of meetings held in mid-September, during which the company's dealer owners began to express misgivings about continuing to fund the venture in a post-Sept. 11 landscape. BondBook has been hurt by the well-documented liquidity problems in the corporate bond market, but its $3 million monthly cash burn rate is more to blame, according to the executive, who was involved in the technological development of the company. He continues that when dealers are visibly reducing headcount by up to 20% in some instances, it is difficult to ask them to continue to invest in a "continuing cost-center."

Over 100 European bankers, analysts and company officials gathered in Rome last week for the Second Annual Issuers' and Investors' Summit on Italian & Southern European ABS. They spoke about investor appetite for securitizations, market growth and obstacles, pending legislation, repackaged finance deals and the different kinds of assets available for securitization. BondWeek Senior Reporter Rachel Wolcottfiled the following stories:

Vertical Crossings has hired Ken Clisham to be a senior relationship manager for its institutional structured product accounts. Patrick Downes, the New York firm's president, says Clisham, who joined several weeks ago, will be a managing director, and is in a new slot. He is a mortgage-backed securities market veteran, who had been a senior pass-through trader at Merrill Lynch, Greenwich Capital Markets and Chase Securities, and had worked with Downes at GCM, when Downes was head of that firm's collateralized mortgage obligation sales effort in the late 90s.

Barclays Capital has hired Gerard O'Connor, an analyst and collateralized debt obligation veteran, as a director for its new CDO department, according to Eileen Murphy, head of the firm's global CDO effort. O'Connor, who started last Monday, is in a new slot. He is acting as a structurer for all CDO products. Murphy says she is currently looking to staff four additional positions--two of which will be filled internally and two with external hires. All four spots will have a strong emphasis on equity distribution. O'Connor says he is "thrilled," to continue his long professional relationship with Murphy, as well as the opportunity to start a group from scratch at Barclays.