The new Muriel Siebert & Co. subsidiary Siebert, Brandford, Shank & Co. has picked up 35 municipal professionals in the past month from the firm that had been known as Grigsby Brandford & Co.
The 22 bankers and 17 sales and trading professionals - who have followed former Grigsby partners Napoleon Brandford 3d and Suzanne Shank to the new firm - account for the bulk of Grigsby's muni division. And the new firm plans to hire "several" more institutional salespeople in New York, California, and Texas to aid its distribution efforts, said Brandford, who chairs the new entity.
Siebert Brandford was formed earlier this month when Brandford and Shank quit Grigsby Brandford to join New York-based Muriel Siebert. Their move came in the wake of the sudden resignation of chairman Calvin Grigsby, who has since hung a new shingle, a firm called Grigsby & Associates.
Grigsby's departure from the old firm coincided with reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into alleged political corruption and bribes associated with a $183 million bond issue for Dade County, Fla. The firm had served as senior underwriter on the issue. Grigsby has since hired famed O.J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran to represent him.
Calvin Grigsby has injected capital into Grigsby & Associates since his partners' departure, bringing the firm's current capitalization to $4.7 million, said Bob Ceresa, who heads New York sales efforts for the firm. There are currently four bankers and five salespeople spread between San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami.
However, Sherman Swanson, who headed underwriting and trading for Grigsby Brandford, is not one them. Swanson is one of the 35 who has joined Siebert, where he will fill the same role, Brandford said.
GB Derivatives Products Co. remains under the Grigsby mantle under Don Rice Jr., who heads a staff of four, Ceresa said.
As of Tuesday, Grigsby & Associates had not petitioned the National Association of Securities Dealers or the Securities and Exchange Commission to change its name from Grigsby Brandford, according to spokespersons at both agencies.
Ceresa referred questions regarding the name change to Grigsby, who did not return calls by press time.
Meanwhile, Brandford noted that bringing over the bulk of Grigsby's municipal group has helped the new Siebert subsidiary establish credibility with the issuer community.
To complement that, Brandford said: "We have an additional retail network that we didn't have before, and the capital of the new firm is three times as big as the old firm." Grigsby Brandford's capital was approximately $3 million, Brandford said, adding that he and Shank have liquidated their capital from that firm.
Siebert Brandford has already been involved in underwriting several municipal bond issues.
On Tuesday the firm solely managed a $17.4 million certificate of participation issue for Prince George's County, Md.- the firm's first chance as a senior manager.
Yesterday the firm was a co-senior manager on a $169.4 million single- family mortgage revenue bond issue for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Bear, Stearns & Co. ran the books on the deal. The firm will also be part of the syndicate for another Bear Stearns-managed issue: a $211 million deal from Chicago for O'Hare International Airport, which is due to enter the market today.
Muriel Siebert currently has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, New York, and Boca Raton and Naples, Fla.
Referring to the alliance, Muriel F. Siebert, chief executive officer of the firm that bears her name, said: "This will make a lot sense for us. We have 80,000 retail accounts that we want to feed some bonds to."
The firm is also set to open offices in Bal Harbor and West Palm Beach, Fla.; in Morristown, N.J.; and in Beverly Hills, Calif., she said.
Siebert Brandford hopes to eventually establish a municipal presence in all of these offices, Siebert added. Right now, however, Brandford noted that the highest priority is being given to the San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago locations.
