B of A, Merrill Muni Merger Advances

CHICAGO - Banc of America Securities LLC and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s ongoing efforts to merge their municipal departments advanced recently as the firms named regional, sector, and specialty group managers, sources said.

Most of the banking leads will report to managing director Ed Sisk, according to sources. He will serve as a liaison between most of the groups and report directly to the head of the municipal unit John Lawlor, according to an internal memo circulated earlier this month.

Representatives from the firms did not return calls to comment.

The firms' staffs have been awaiting the selection of group and sector managers since it was announced late last year that Lawlor would oversee all municipal activities, including origination, sales, and trading. He reports to Bank of America's Gerhard Seebacher, who was chosen to serve as head of the global credit products at the combined firm.

Since agreeing to buy Merrill in September, Bank of America has rolled out announcements about its senior executives for the combined firm, pulling from both companies. Many believed Lawlor's appointment to lead the municipal group signaled the firm would draw more heavily from the Merrill side for municipal management positions and that appears to be the case.

Veteran Merrill managing director Edward Malmstrom will continue to manage the firm's health care practice, Merrill's James Smith will manage the public-private partnership group, and Carol Rein and Jim Calpin, both of whom joined Merrill last year after UBS shuttered its public finance banking effort, will manage transportation.

H. Jay Bellwoar, a former UBS banker who joined Merrill last year, and Banc of America's nonprofit team leader in San Francisco Richard Chisholm will co-manage the nonprofit institutions and higher education groups. Merrill's Christopher Fink will manage the public power and energy group and Banc of America's Chris Cronk will manage educational finance. Merrill's Barbara Feldman will lead the housing group. Merrill's David Stephens will lead the swap and quantitive group.

Another Merrill banker who came from UBS, Ralph Saggiomo, will lead the combined firms' central mid-Atlantic effort; Merrill banker Ed Burdett will lead the West Coast effort; Merrill's Richard Meister the Southwest effort; Banc of America's Joseph Branca the New England region; Merrill's Sonia Toledo the Northeast region; Merrill's Smith will lead the Midwest effort; Merrill's Mark Widener will lead the Southeast region; and Banc of America's Edward Boyles will run the mid-Atlantic effort.

Banc of America's head of sales, trading and underwriting Russell Mannis will lead high yield and credit trading and while Merrill's manager of trading and underwriting David Andersen will manage syndicate and high-grade trading. Merrill's Michael Jentis will manage institutional sales while Merrill's Edward Curland will serve as manager of the capital markets group and Banc of America's Kenneth Leonczyk will manage the originations group. Merrill's Michael Sullivan will manage retail markets marketing.

The internal announcement comes amid the expectation of additional layoffs in the coming weeks. Both firms have undertaken a series of layoffs over the last six months, most recently announcing cuts late last month and earlier this month. The ultimate goal of the reductions is to trim roughly 40% off the tax-exempt group's head count due to the ongoing pressure on the bank's balance sheet and troubled economy.

While some parts of the merged organization, including research, are doing business as Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, the firms have continued to underwrite bonds under both names.

Boosted by Merrill's role as co-senior manager on March's $6.5 billion offering from California, Bank of America and Merrill took the top spot for the first quarter among senior managers working on 111 issues with a par value of $15.5 billion.

Separately, Merrill ranked second last year among senior managers on all bond issues, managing $40.8 billion in 340 issues, while Banc of America ranked seventh, with 353 issues totaling $19.9 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

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