Jefferies expands high-yield, leveraged loan and distressed platform

By Angela McDaniels

Tacoma, Wash., May 27 - Jefferies & Co., Inc. has hired 17 people and plans to hire three more traders during the next few weeks under its plan to expand its capabilities in high yield, leveraged loans, distressed and special situations sales, trading and research, according to a company news release.

Since the addition of Robert Harteveldt, a 24-year Bear Stearns veteran, as chairman of fixed income in July 2008, Jefferies has hired nine sales professionals, one trader and seven research analysts, expanding the distribution team to nearly 50 people.

With seven recent hires, the firm's high-yield and distressed-debt sales team has grown to 17 people. Danielle Bar-Illan and Richard Wright joined from Bear Stearns/JPMorgan, Robert Hamill joined from Lehman Brothers, Michael Kasper joined from JPMorgan; Scott Haberman and Richard Reubenstone joined from Merrill Lynch; and Steven Rosen joined from Deutsche Bank.

Jefferies' sales team for performing and non-performing bank loans now totals five professionals, including two recent additions: James Wood from UBS and Richard Furlong from Bear Stearns/JPMorgan.

In trading, Kurt Krestinski joined Jefferies from Barclays Capital. The company said that with 13 years of buyside and sellside experience trading high-yield and distressed securities, Krestinski trades the technology, retail and media sectors at Jefferies.

The firm's research teams for leveraged finance and special situations now include 25 people. Two senior publishing analysts have recently joined in leveraged finance, growing that team to 17, including 10 sector analysts.

Eric Toubin joined Jefferies from Bank of America, where he had been an analyst covering the technology section, and John Maxwell joined from Merrill Lynch to cover the gaming space. Jefferies said both have been ranked by Institutional Investor for the last four years.

Jefferies' special situations team has grown to seven analysts who are focused on transaction-oriented ideas in all parts of the capital structure of leveraged companies, according to the release.

The five recent additions include: Spencer Alstodt, who joined the firm from Bear Stearns where he focused on capital markets transactions; Justin Brass, who joined Jefferies from Paul Weiss where he advised both debtors and creditors of bankrupt companies and companies undergoing reorganizations; Andrew Brausa, who joined from Citadel Investment Group where he focused on homebuilders and building material companies; Kevin O'Brien, who joined from Basso Capital Partners where he focused on power, utility and gaming companies; and Milun Patel, who joined from Credit Suisse where he focused on metal and mining, energy and automotive suppliers.

Jefferies is a securities and investment banking firm based in New York.

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