Loop Capital Markets LLC yesterday announced it has hired two JPMorgan veterans as public finance investment bankers.
In a new San Francisco office, Nikolai J. Sklaroff will be a managing director and the firm's head of cultural institutions investment banking. At its Chicago headquarters, Loop has hired 23-year veteran of municipal finance Clarence K. Bourne. Bourne was hired as a director and will report to Warren "Bo" Daniels, head of public finance.
Sklaroff will report to Cody Press, Loop's Los Angeles-based Western region head, who worked with Sklaroff at Citi and JPMorgan.
"Loop is very committed to growing our public finance business nationally," Jim Reynolds Jr., Loop's chief executive officer, said in a statement. He said Sklaroff will continue his unique national practice of financing cultural institutions.
He has been the lead banker for a number of high-profile museums around the nation, including the California Academy of Sciences, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new Broad Museum of Contemporary Art, the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, and the deYoung Museum in San Francisco.
Sklaroff was an investment banker with Citi and JPMorgan for 12 years. A public finance specialist for the past 23 years, he has also worked as a senior rating analyst with Moody's Investors Service and a financial adviser with Public Financial Management.
"I am pleased to join a growing national firm that regards public finance as a core business, and recognizes the need to work with cultural institutions," he said in a statement. "I am also excited to be part of a partnership that values my unique client base and also has the full-service underwriting, remarketing, and derivatives capabilities my clients need."
In Chicago, Bourne brings with him a variety of experience working on banking, trading, and underwriting during his career at JPMorgan, beginning at First Chicago Capital Markets, which later was acquired by Banc One Capital Markets and then by JPMorgan. Bourne most recently worked as a banker with public sector clients.
Loop is an investment bank that operates 14 offices with 100 corporate and tax-exempt professionals with underwriting, sales, and trading desks in Chicago and New York City. The new hires mark the firm's latest expansion and effort to capitalize on the market turmoil that has led other firms to exit the business or shed staff.
Loop Capital - aiming to reach $100 million in annual revenues - last year hired more than a dozen professionals in banking, sales, and trading, as well as a privatization specialist. The investment bank also opened a new office in Orlando.
Reynolds, his wife Sandy, and Albert Grace Jr. opened the minority-owned firm more than a decade ago with just a handful of professionals.
