As part of its ongoing expansion, M.R. Beal & Co. this year expects to move its New York City headquarters to 110 Wall St. from 67 Wall St.
Chief operating officer Stanley E. Grayson said in an interview Friday that the underwriting and financial advisory firm decided to move to handle its expanding staff. Its new lease will run for 10 years.
M.R. Beal also plans to open an office in Baltimore and expects to hire a banker who will concentrate on traditional municipal finance. It is also expanding in the Midwest, where it will add another two bankers this year.
M.R. Beal was founded in 1988 and specializes in municipal and corporate finance.
The firm has been adding to its operations and staff. Late last year, it hired former Morgan Stanley veteran Robert Hoffman as a senior vice president to work on structured finance transactions.
Prior to that, in August, the firm acquired the New Jersey office of Red Capital Markets, which specialized in the muni secondary markets.
M.R. Beal already has bankers in corporate structured finance, but Grayson said Hoffman is expected to help increase the amount of deals it does in utilities and other regulated sectors.
M.R. Beal is putting increased emphasis on regulated industries because such issuers are involved in tax-exempts, corporates, and preferred financings, which is a nice bridge for our business, he added.
Grayson said Hoffman brings a lot of experience and adds to the firms ability to pursue and execute such transactions.
Hoffman said he reports directly to Jarius De Walt, executive vice president and head of M.R. Beals investment banking group.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Hoffman worked as a vice president in the in public finance group of the former Chase Securities, now J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., where he specialized in the student loan sector with secondary coverage of select state agencies. Before that he worked at Chemical Securities and Stone & Webster Management.
