Goldman Gets 4 From UBS

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Goldman, Sachs & Co. has hired four senior bankers from the recently shuttered public finance group at UBS Securities LLC, including former head of municipal banking Jeff Scruggs, who has come aboard as a managing director and will run the public sector banking group with Sue Benz and Tim Romer, the company announced.

In addition, Mark Florian, managing director and head of Goldman's infrastructure banking, has departed, the firm said. Florian is heading to First Reserve Corp., a private equity firm that specializes in the energy industry, according to market sources. He will be replaced by managing directors Greg Carey and John Ma. Managing director Tim Vincent will also be a senior member of the group.

Goldman Sachs' other hires from UBS include Rondy Jennings, who joins as a managing director in the health care group, Freda Wang, who joins as a vice president in the capital markets group, and Neil Morrison, who joins as a vice president in the Northeast coverage group.

"These four new hires show that Goldman Sachs continues to invest in its public sector business and is intent on deepening its talent pool," spokesman Michael DuVally said.

So far this year, Goldman ranks fifth nationally as a senior manager, working on 152 deals with a volume of $20.3 billion through July 18, according to Thomson Reuters data. It acted as the senior manager on 189 issues with a par value of $28.6 billion all of last year, also ranking fifth. Goldman ranks 10th nationally as a financial adviser, working on seven issues with a total volume of $3.5 billion.

Working at UBS and its predecessors since 1984, Scruggs comes to Goldman Sachs after heading the municipal banking group at UBS for just over a year. He and the other new Goldman bankers become the most recent of former UBS bankers to find new homes since the bank officially close its muni division in June in an effort to refocus its fixed-income, currencies, and commodities unit on its core businesses.

Florian leaves Goldman after heading an infrastructure group that had been at the forefront of public-private partnership developments. Goldman acted as an adviser on the $1.83 billion lease of the Chicago Skyway toll bridge - a major privatization of an existing road - and also the $3.8 billion lease of the Indiana Toll Road. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs formed the nonprofit coalition America Moving Forward along with foreign toll-road operators to promote the use of P3s to finance the country's infrastructure needs.

Taking over for him, Carey and Ma come from differing areas of expertise. Known for his work on stadium financing, Carey acted as lead banker on the $968 million deal to raise financing for the new Yankee Stadium through the New York City Industrial Development Authority. Ma has a background in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance, although he has most recently worked in public finance.

"We think it's a nice marriage of those two backgrounds," DuVally said.

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