CHICAGO -- Louisville, Ky.-based Hilliard Lyons has acquired a two-man firm in Michigan as it continues to expand its public finance footprint in the Midwest and Southeast.
The acquisition of Great Lakes Capital Markets LLC brings Michigan veterans Jack Brusewitz and Tom Enright to Hilliard. Brusewitz was CEO of Great Lakes and Enright was managing director.
Hilliard has hired eight public finance professionals over the past year as it seeks to expand its financial advisory business and grow its broker-dealer division, J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons LLC, in key states.
“The goal is to have a strong public finance presence in states where we already have a footprint,” said Alexander Rorke, senior managing director of the firm’s municipal securities group. “We see the opportunities and are investing in states where we expect to have business grow a lot over the next few years.”
Hilliard already operates 12 branch offices in Michigan.
Nationally the firm operates 70 branches in 12 states, with public finance bankers located in Louisville, Indiana, Ohio, and now Michigan. The municipal securities group has 22 professionals in banking, underwriting, sales and trading. Hilliard operates trading and underwriting desks in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.
Brusewitz and Enright join the firm as senior vice presidents. Both men worked at Oppenheimer & Co.’s Detroit office for years before it was closed in 2008.
“They’re both seasoned veterans and they’re exactly what we were looking for,” Rorke said.
With more than 28 years of experience, Brusewitz also worked at Leonard & Co., where he ran the investment banking division, as well as at Paine Webber and Merrill Lynch. He will work out of Hilliard’s Birmingham, Mich. office.
Brusewitz’s focus will be as a banker on negotiated issues on the local and state levels. Enright will focus on serving as financial advisor for various issuers, Rorke said.
Enright also worked at Oppenheimer, and before that at First Michigan Bank Corp., which Oppenheimer acquired in 1997. Enright joined Raymond James & Associates Inc. after Oppenheimer. He will be based at an office in Trenton.
Hilliard last July hired Scott Stubbins, formerly of RBC Capital Markets, to lead its Ohio efforts from Cincinnati. It also hired two institutional sales professionals, Bill Stewart and Priscilla Dearmin-Turner, last year.
Hilliard Lyons ranked 69th nationally as senior manager in 2012, with $275 million of volume on 75 transactions, according to Thomson Reuters. The firm ranks 64th nationally as senior manager for the first three months of 2013.
In Kentucky, the firm ranked 14th as senior manager in 2012 working on 16 transactions, and ranks 8th so far this year.
As financial advisor in Kentucky, Hilliard the firm ranked second last year, working on $460 million of volume on 57 separate transactions. New Kentucky clients include the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District and the Louisville Arena Authority.
Recent Ohio transactions include senior-managed deals for the Talawanda School District and the city of Wilmington, according to Rorke. In Indiana, the firm is sole manager for an upcoming $30 million sewer refunding for the city of Evansville’s sewer system. Hilliard will also be financial advisor in April on a $270 million for Louisville’s Metropolitan Sanitary District.
