Bartolotta Jumping from First Southwest to Citi

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WASHINGTON — Michael Bartolotta, formerly of First Southwest, has left that firm to join Citi in Houston.

Hill Feinberg, chairman and chief executive officer of First Southwest confirmed the move. A Citi spokesperson would not comment and Bartolotta could not be reached for comment.

But Feinberg and sources said Bartolotta, former vice chair of First Southwest, is expected to become a regional manager of public finance for Citi in Houston.

Bartolotta's departure is a blow for First Southwest, where he worked for 19 years and became well known nationally in the muni market. He is a former chair of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and former head of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's municipal securities committee.

"I'm disappointed and the firm is disappointed," said Feinberg. "He's done a great job for us, but Michael wanted to grow into new areas, with a firm that can take principal positions and do major underwritings or major restructuring of loans. He wanted to do bigger things than what First Southwest, Southwest Securities, or Hilltop could do."

Bartolotta's move to Citi also indicates that firm wants to grow their muni underwriting business in Texas and the Southwest, sources said.

Citi ranked second among senior managers in the Southwest for the first half of this year, for more $4.25 billion of bonds. Top ranked was J.P. Morgan for $4.56 billion of bonds.

First Southwest was top ranked financial advisor in the Southwest for the first half of the year, for $10.01 billion of bonds.

Sources do not think Citi wants to get into the FA business.

First Southwest has been in transition in recent months. In January, Hilltop Holding Co., the parent of First Southwest, acquired Southwest Securities. Officials from all of those firms are hoping to get regulatory approvals by the end of this year or the beginning of next year to merge the two broker-dealer firms.

"We're not changing, we want to improve and grow. We want to be a major financial advisory firm complimented with a good underwriting business," said Feinberg.

The acquisition spurred 10 former Southwest Securities public finance employees jumped ship to joint Samco Capital Partners in January.

But Feinberg said there were going to have to be some personnel changes because dealers cannot serve as an FA on a transaction and then an underwriter on the same deal and the two firms had some overlap.

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