Keefe, Bruyette & Woods gets convertibles, preferred securities team

By Devika Patel

Knoxville, Tenn., July 14 - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. said it has created a specialized convertible and preferred securities sales and trading team. The firm also has appointed five employees to staff this new effort.

Robert Ryon joins Keefe, Bruyette & Woods as senior vice president and leader of the convertible team. Most recently, he was managing director, portfolio manager and global head of convertibles at Ramius LLC. Earlier in his career, Ryon held related positions at both Alpine Associates and CIBC World Markets.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and a master's in business administration from Lehigh University.

Brian Lovit joins Keefe, Bruyette & Woods as a senior convertible trader with more than 15 years of experience in trading and risk management of convertible securities. Lovit was formerly a convertible securities trader at Wachovia Securities and previously held the same position at JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware and a master's in business administration in finance from the University of Pittsburgh.

Gregg Loprete joins the firm as a convertible and preferred trader from Ramius LLC, where he was formerly director of the convertible arbitrage group. Previously a senior convertible bond analyst and convertible structures banking liaison at SG Cowen & Co., Loprete will evaluate, implement and manage convertible and capital structure investments.

He graduated from the University of Delaware with a bachelor's degree in English and has a master's in business administration in finance from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Walter Duborg, who joined Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in 2005 as a vice president, is also integrating within the convertible securities team as a preferred and hybrid trader. Duborg was formerly a preferred trader at Pershing for 10 years.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University.

To round out the new convertibles trading team, Sabina Bhatia has been appointed as a convertible analyst. With over 16 years experience in the industry, Bhatia was a convertible analyst for Basso Capital Management and previously a partner and head of research at Tamalpais Asset Management in San Francisco. She started her career at Moody's Investors Service as a credit analyst focusing on non-investment grade companies.

Bhatia holds both her bachelor's degree in economics and master's in business administration in finance and investment management from Pace University.

"KBW's entry into the convertible market is a natural extension of our franchise in financial services and complements our well-established equity and fixed income sales and trading businesses," Keefe, Bruyette & Woods' president Thomas B. Michaud said in a press release.

"Many of the companies we research have convertible securities outstanding and many of our institutional clients are owners of these instruments."

"We believe the convertible marketplace offers great potential for investors in the financial services sector. These securities provide for current income with the potential for share price appreciation over time," Head of Equity Trading John Ragan added in the release.

"We are delighted to have attracted such an experienced group of professionals to help us build this important business."

The investment bank is based in New York.

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