By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
The Japanese financial firm Nomura has hired yet more deal makers for the Americas, as it continues to push for a share of the investment banking pie in the region.
The firm plans to announce on Tuesday that it has hired six senior bankers, including a new head of equity capital markets for the region to oversee initial public offerings and other stock deals.
The hires are:
• Mark Connelly, who will serve as head of equity capital markets for the Americas, and most recently served as global co-head of equity capital markets at Jefferies.
• Garrett Carpenter and Christina Park, who will join as managing directors in the acquisition leveraged finance team. Mr. Carpenter most recently worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, while Ms. Park previously worked at Barclays and Lehman Brothers.
• James Frawley, who will work as a managing director in the industrials mergers group, and Peter Finn, who will serve as an executive director in the team. Both previously worked at Macquarie Capital.
• Carl Torrillo, who will join as an executive director in the industrials investment banking team. He previously worked at ACE Portal, a transaction management firm he helped found.
“These latest appointments are a testament to Nomura’s longstanding commitment to building upon its investment banking franchise in the Americas,” James DeNaut, the head of Americas investment banking, said in a statement.
Since the financial crisis, Nomura has sought to build its team in the region, which still generates the largest amount of investment banking fees worldwide. As of last month, the firm had 2,514 employees in the United States, compared with 700 when it began bolstering the team in March 2009.
Its global head of investment banking, Kentaro Okuda, said during a presentation to investors in May that the firm was committed to hiring in the Americas to keep gaining revenue. In that presentation, Mr. Okuda said that the firm had more than quadrupled its clients in the region.
In the first half of Nomura’s fiscal year, the Americas yielded 26 percent of its global markets revenue and roughly 40 percent of its international investment banking sales.
Among the transactions it has worked on over the last 12 months are the acquisition of Life Time Fitness by the investment firms Leonard Green & Partners and TPG Capital and PetSmart’s sale to BC Partners. In both cases, Nomura advised the buyers and provided financing.
Yet the firm may not be done hiring. Internally, the firm has noted that its Midtown Manhattan headquarters in the Worldwide Plaza building has room to let it expand its team by an additional 50 percent if necessary, according to a person briefed on the matter.
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/business/dealbook/nomura-hires-six-bankers-in-effort-to-expand-in-americas.html?_r=0