CHICAGO — In a move that elevates its public finance standing in Missouri, St. Louis-based Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. has hired seven bankers from competitor Wachovia Securities, including the local municipal group's manager Anne Noble and school district financing veteran Lorenzo Boyd.
The group of seven started at Stifel over the last two weeks and were not among the roughly 25 members of Wachovia's municipal group whose positions were cut this week. Wachovia Corp. announced it would trim about 500 positions across its global markets and investment banking business in conjunction with its announcement of a $708 million first quarter loss.
The bank's board also forced out chief executive officer Ken Thompson. A Wachovia spokeswoman declined to provide details of the layoffs or departures. She said Amelia Bondremains the director of public finance based in St. Louis. Sources said the firm shut down its underwriting desk in St. Louis as part of the cuts.
The defections and firings leave a significant hole in the old St. Louis behemoth that was A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. The investment bank merged last summer with Wachovia Corp. Additionally, cuts made over the last year by Banc of America SecuritiesLLC have resulted in a void in Missouri that other local firms are stepping in to fill by snapping up bankers, but none have capitalized more than Stifel.
The new hirers include many members of the regional municipal group that Noble, a former managing director, led. Boyd also was a managing director. Joining them at Stifel in St. Louis are former associate Thomas Crabtree, analyst Martin Ghafoori, and Dennis Lea and James Burgett, both former vice presidents. Sean McCarthy, a former vice president, also jumped to Stifel but in its Chicago office.
Noble joined Stifel as a senior vice president. She previously managed a group of 12 bankers and worked on more than 400 bond issues worth more than $10 billion for schools, cities and universities in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Boyd also joined the firm as a senior vice president. During his 11 years at Wachovia he worked on more than $8 billion of bond deals with a focus on primary education in Missouri.
Crabtree started as a vice president. His experience is in working on general government and school transactions, tax-increment financing, state agency debt and higher education. McCarthy joined as a first vice president. His primary experience is in general infrastructure and school financings. Burgett joined as a first vice president working on a part-time basis on school district financings. Lea is a first vice president also working on school district deals. He too will work part-time. Ghafoori is an associate, helping support the banking group.
The group's hiring follows that of their former colleague Laura Radcliffe who resigned to join Stifel in March. The hirers bring to 50 the number of public finance professionals at Stifel, which has expanded its presence in several markets in recent years.
"These additions dramatically increase our market presence with school districts and general government credits in Missouri and Illinois," Peter Czajkowski, senior vice president, and the manager of the St. Louis banking group, said in an interview yesterday. "These are experienced highly professional bankers."
After Wachovia acquired A.G. Edwards, Stifel officials made known their interest in talking to the firm's bankers, and after Radcliffe, a specialist in economic development structures, started in March "one thing led to another," Cazjkowski said.
Stifel last December expanded in Illinois, hiring former Illinois Finance Authority interim executive director Jill Rendleman while Catherine Vaughan formerly of LaSalle Financial Services joined Stifel in Detroit. The firm also operates public finance offices in Denver, Edwardsville, Ill.; Wichita, Kan.; Birmingham, Mich.; Baltimore and Milwaukee.
Stifel ranks 10th so far this year in Missouri as a senior manager compared to Wachovia in the ninth spot. Last year, Stifel finished out the year ranking 10th compared to Wachovia in the third slot. Wachovia ranked fourth and Stifel 15th in 2006. Nationally, Wachovia ranks 11th so far this year and Stifel ranks 33rd. Last year, Wachovia ranked 11th compared to Stifel at 27th while in 2006 Wachovia ranked 10th and Stifel 20th.
