CIBC Oppenheimer Names Head of Municipal Finance

CIBC Oppenheimer Corp., the merged entity between Oppenheimer & Co. and CIBC Wood Gundy Securities Corp., has named William H. Frazier head of municipal finance, the firm said in a statement yesterday.

The appointment comes on the heels of CIBC Wood Gundy's announcement Monday that it had agreed to buy Oppenheimer for an undisclosed amount.

Frazier said he hopes to integrate CIBC Wood Gundy's municipal underwriting group into Oppenheimer's already broad-based municipal operations, including its letter of credit business. Moreover, he intends to focus capital on expanding into structured municipal products.

Frazier, a managing director in public finance at Oppenheimer prior to the merger, reports to Kyle Permut, who assumes overall responsibility for the firm's fixed-income operations, CIBC Oppenheimer said. Permut was previously co-head of Oppenheimer's fixed-income division.

Oppenheimer ranked 113th in the first three quarters of 1997 as senior manager, with six issues totaling $88.8 million, according to Securities Data Co. As co-manager, it ranked 20th, with 300 issues totaling $9.38 billion during the same period.

Frazier said Oppenheimer will continue to focus on California and New York, and develop its presence in Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, and Illinois. "We are a broad-based operation, and have done a lot of California and New York product, including a fair amount of hospital bonds," Frazier said.

Paul Kuhns, a managing director at Merrill Lynch & Co., said Oppenheimer has a reputation for being a local dealer, appearing in many local transactions as co-manager. The firm, according to Kuhns, is a good competitor in the first four and five years of the municipal yield curve, has limited presence as an underwriter of negotiated deals, but enjoys good retail presence. "They bid with us on some of our California transactions and are a good firm from a risk-taking perspective," Kuhns said.