Securitization People and Markets

Mark Jicka is reportedly leaving Deutsche Bank, where he was a managing director and head of North American corporate bond trading, in order to join Barclays Capital, according to several buy- and sell-side traders. Jicka could not be reached, nor could Rajeev Misra, London-based head of global credit trading at Deutsche Bank. Ted Meyer, Deutsche Bank spokesman, declined to comment. John Kreitler, global trading head at Barclays, did not return calls.

Merrill Lynch's recent appointment of Marc Pinto as its new head of credit research for the Americas, led to the demotion of Clare Schiedermayer, who had been promoted to the position just over six months ago (BW, 1/13). Schiedermayer stays on as managing director and retail analyst.

Wayne Lyski will step down from his position as chairman and cio of fixed-income at Alliance Capital at the end of the year. As reported last week on Bondweek.com he will stay on as a special advisor to Bruce Calvert, ceo, until Jan. 31, 2004. "Part of the interest for me is in product creation and development. That will always be a feature of this business, but the pace of it has slowed and will continue slow because the business is more mature," says Lyski, explaining the the reason for his decision. He will be 61 when he retires. His duties will be taken over by the heads of the various business units, though the position of chairman and cio may eventually be re-established, he says. Kathleen Corbet, ceo of fixed-income, will become more active on the investment side of the business.

Incapital LLC, a boutique investment bank that underwrites and distributes fixed-income products to individual investors, is assembling a syndication team in London, say officials familiar with the plans. The firm is in the market to hire a syndication head as well as several syndication bankers to build its London team. Brian Walker, managing director at Incapital in Chicago, referred calls to Tom Ricketts, ceo, who did not comment by press time.

Deutsche Bank has hired a new securitization generalist for its London-based European securitization research team. Carole Bernard joins from J.P. Morgan Securities where she had been a securitization structurer for two plus years, says Ganesh Rajendra, head of European securitization research and to whom Bernard will report. Bernard was brought on to respond to the growth of Deutsche Bank's European securitization business. The firm is currently ranked first in the European securitization league tables. A J.P. Morgan spokesman did not comment by press time.

Laura Marcano, the recently departed assistant counsel of The Bond Market Association, says that she left the group to pursue her long-time interest in public interest work. Marcano, who resigned last month (BW, 7/22), says she is seeking to apply her legal skills in one of several fields, including community environmental initiatives, economic development and education. She says education is particularly of interest, because she spent several years prior to law school as a teacher.

Jay Weintraub will retire at the end of the month from Merrill Lynch, where he is a managing director and U.S. bank analyst. Weintraub, 54, was formerly the co-head of investment grade research, but was relieved of his managerial responsibilities during a recent reshuffling of the credit research group (BW, 1/13). He has spent 11 years at Merrill. Previously he spent eight years at Salomon Smith Barney. "Coming up on 20 years is a long time on the sell-side. I felt like I wanted to do something else. What it will be I don't know yet," he says.

Last week was mildly positive for high-yield through Thursday. Bigger liquid names saw a bit of a bounce, and a pair of new issues with hefty coupons came to market. Here was some notable action.

Betsy Roberts, head of the private placement group at Hartford Investment Management Co., retired recently. Reached at her home in Connecticut, she said she took time off to be with her family. Curt Nyman, v.p., is serving as interim head of the private placement team, but a search is well under way for a permanent successor, says Cynthia Michener, a spokeswoman with the buy-side firm. Nyman, who joined Himco in 1997, reports to Tim Corbett, managing director. Nyman was on holiday and could not be reached. As of June 30, Himco had $80 billion in assets under management, including $2.3 billion in private placement securities.