Cabrera Capital Markets Hires Steve Eaddy, Formerly of LaSalle Financial

CHICAGO - Chicago-based Cabrera Capital Markets LLC has hired LaSalle Financial Services Inc.'s former public finance banking head Steve Eaddy, who will return to his New York City roots as the firm seeks to snare more Northeastern business.

Eaddy, who moved to Chicago in June 2005 to establish a physical banking presence here for M.R. Beal & Co., started at Cabrera in its Chicago office on Monday as a senior vice president in the public finance group reporting to Brian King, head of public finance banking. He will relocate to New York City in four to six weeks, according to Mike Smale, a senior managing director who oversees managing directors in public finance, corporate finance, and equities at Cabrera.

In joining the firm, Eaddy was reunited with Smale, the former head of LaSalle's fixed-income group who hired Eaddy to manage that firm's public finance banking group in 2006. Both Smale and Eaddy lost their positions with LaSalle after Bank of America Corp. purchased LaSalle Bank Corp. and shut down the municipals group late last year.

"Steve will cover the Northeast with a concentration on New York issuers," Smale said in an interview yesterday. "We were looking to put more emphasis on the New York area and in our discussions with Steve it became clear it was a good fit for both of us given his relationships in the Northeast."

Eaddy, 51, will join another former colleague - public finance banker and quantitative specialist Yuri Kalina - in Cabrera's New York office. The two worked together at Beal. Eaddy did not return a call to comment on his move, but a source close to him said: "Cabrera provided a good opportunity because it's a solid firm that is growing and he has good relationships" with Smale, Kalina, and King, who Eaddy called on as a client when King was deputy comptroller for Chicago.

Eaddy, who lived in Chicago while attending Northwestern University's law school, has a broad public finance background. His professional career began as a lawyer at Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP in 1981. He moved on to analyst positions with Standard & Poor's and then Fitch Ratings. In addition to working at a monoline insurer and at LaSalle and Beal, he began his banking career with Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC in 1997.

Eaddy's hiring is the latest as the firm seeks to boost its business. Smale was brought in earlier this year by the firm's founder and chief executive officer Martin Cabrera Jr., as the seven-year-old firm sought to boost its senior management business after establishing itself as a hardworking, minority-owned co-manager and an infusion of new capital in mid-2007.

Smale said Cabrera and other regional firms stand to benefit from the layoffs at Wall Street firms and their struggles in the auction-rate securities market. Aside from having a wider pool of talent to select from, Smale said "issuers are expanding the universe of people that they dealing with."

Cabrera has eight public finance offices across the country, in Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Santa Fe, and San Antonio in addition to its Chicago headquarters. Smale said the firm is interested in hiring additional bankers in areas where it sees business opportunities.

The firm ranked 140th nationally last year as a senior manager on $28.3 million of debt in six deals, according to Thomson Reuters. As a co-manager, the firm ranked 29th nationally on $1.7 billion. Nationally, the firm ranked 21st so far this year on $2 billion of debt as a co-manager and 156th as a senior manager.

In the Midwest the firm ranked fourth with $1 billion of deals as a co-manager so far this year, and 28th with $418 million last year. The firm ranked 30th on $336 million of deals in the Northeast for the first six months and 21st on $893 million of bonds last year.

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