FBR & Co., a suburban Washington, D.C. investment bank, entered into an agreement with New Yorks Lazard Capital Markets to hire away 29 equities staffers, the company announced earlier this week. The deal allows FBR to expand its research coverage.
In a statement, Richard Hendrix, FBRs chairman and chief executive officer, called the move a complementary fit. He added: Our combined teams have little overlap in terms of key clients and will be able to serve those clients much more effectively with a meaningfully enhanced product offering.”
Included in this group are six senior research analysts, six sales traders, three position traders, and four institutional sales people.
The deal will allow FBR to initiate coverage of the healthcare industry and add to its existing coverage of the TMT (technology, media, and telecom) and consumer groups. Combined with other recent hires in research, the overall team will include 31 senior analysts covering seven industry groups and Washington policy. The expanded research team will initially provide coverage of approximately 500 publicly traded securities.
According to both LCM and FBR, the deal was a negotiated transfer of employees. In a statement, LCM, which had about 200 employees before the deal, said it continues to service its clients across all product lines.
Earlier this year, LCM representatives announced it was exploring a sale or a capital infusion. Yesterday, Fox Business News reported LCM was on its last legs and was undergoing a mass exodus.
For one buyside trader, the firm’s travails are part of a trend. I think were going to see a lot more consolidation on the broker-dealer side, Nanette Buziak, head of equity trading at ING Investment Management, said at a conference yesterday sponsored by the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association. Mid-tier firms will either close up shop or merge with someone else.
Lazard Capital Markets was spun out from Lazard Ltd., the financial advisory and asset management firm, in May 2005.
