CHICAGO - At least one municipal bond professional has been laid off as a result of Cleveland-based KeyCorp's acquisition of crosstown investment bank McDonald & Company Investments Inc.
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Louis Sprauer, senior vice president of underwriting with KeyCorp's Key Capital Markets Inc., confirmed Friday that he has been let go in the wake of the deal, which closed last Monday. KeyCorp paid $580 million for the investment bank.
Sprauer, 59, had been with Key Capital for about 2#1/2 years. Before joining Key Capital, Sprauer was an underwriter with Chemical Securities Inc. in New York. He also previously worked for Prudential Securities Inc.
Key Capital has increased its Ohio municipal bond underwriting totals since 1996. According to Securities Data Co., the firm, as senior manager, underwrote about $110 million of Ohio bonds in 1996, $142 million in 1996, $197 million in 1997, and $230 million this year as of Sept. 30.
There are additional changes involving municipal bond professionals in the works at the combined firm, said Sprauer, who hopes to continue working in the municipals industry. However, he would not divulge any names of professionals who are facing the ax.
A spokesman for KeyCorp would not comment on specific firings, saying only that a few reductions were expected. A McDonald & Co. spokesman had no comment.
In closing the deal last week, KeyCorp announced that it would form a new organization, to be called Key Capital Partners, that will include two business groups - McDonald Investments and Key Asset Management. William B. Summers Jr., former president and chief executive of McDonald, will head the department.
McDonald Investments will handle retail brokerage, investment banking and institutional capital markets. Key Capital Markets and McDonald & Co. Securities Inc.'s tax-exempt bond divisions, will be combined under the new McDonald Investments name, which becomes effective Nov. 9.
Before the deal, Key's municipal finance division consisted of about 25 employees, while McDonald & Company Securities Inc., was slightly smaller.
