Wall Street Firms Put More Stock in L.A. Offices
Investment banking in Los Angeles has always been a boom-and-bust business, with many Wall Street giants suddenly staffing up their Los Angeles outposts when times are good and pulling their minions back to New York again during the lean years.
These days its boom time in the Southland. With financings for Southern California companies picking up steam, some Wall Street firms can’t hire people for Los Angeles offices fast enough.
* Morgan Stanley & Co. is creating a new mergers and acquisitions group in Los Angeles and adding four investment bankers here. The group will be headed by Ian Pereira, a principal with Morgan in New York, who has worked on such major deals as the spinoff of Lucent Technologies from AT&T; Corp. Pereira, 38, is moving to Los Angeles. Deals with the three other bankers are expected to be completed soon, said Dan Ewell, head of Morgan’s Los Angeles office. That will bring the total number of investment bankers Morgan has in its Century City office tower to 15. “There’s a substantial amount of merger and acquisition activity in the Southern California market,” said Pereira, who also helped sell privately held toy maker Kransco to Mattel. “There is a major opportunity for us in Los Angeles. Companies want to talk to someone who is in their time zone and doesn’t have to fly in and out all the time.”
* Sutro & Co. in Los Angeles has formed a new department to trade and conduct research on high-yield bonds. San Francisco-based Sutro, which houses its investment banking practice in Los Angeles, will add three people. Former Drexel Burnham trader Lisa Stegall, who has spent the last seven years at Dabney Resnick Imperial in Beverly Hills, will manage the department. Joseph Phillips, Stegall’s former partner at Dabney, will join the firm as senior analyst. Rebecca J. Thomas, a trader at Sutro, also will join. Thomas R. Weinberger is director of investment banking at the firm. “This is a significant addition to the services we offer to our expanding base of corporate and institutional clients,” said Jerry D. Phillips, a director of fixed-income securities at the firm.
* J.P. Morgan & Co., which opened its downtown Los Angeles office in June 1996, continues to expand here. It now has 11 bankers and plans to bring out three more from Chicago and New York by the end of the year. About half of the office focuses on media and entertainment and the other half on general types of businesses. “Los Angeles is just so entrepreneurial--it’s really fast-growing,” said Kenneth McCormick, head of the Los Angeles office. “There are so many middle-market companies looking for advice here right now.”
* It’s still unclear what the $9-billion bid by Travelers Group to buy Salomon Bros. will mean for Salomon’s Los Angeles office. Graeme A. Gilfillan, managing director of the office here, said he could not comment on the merger. Still, Salomon bankers in Los Angeles have been busy in recent months putting together major aerospace deals and others for Palmdale-based U.S. Filter Corp. and SmarTalk Teleservices Inc. in Los Angeles. “It’s one of the busiest times I’ve seen since I got here in the mid-1980s,” said Gilfillan. “We continue to see a high level of activity.” The purchase of Salomon will create the nation’s second-largest securities firm.
* St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards & Sons has hired three investment bankers to staff its new Pasadena office. They are Timothy C. McQuay, a former managing director at Crowell Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles; William J. Harrison, a former associate at Coleman Furlong & Co. in San Francisco; and Roderic R. Essen, a former managing director at PaineWebber, who will be the office manager. “California has proved to be one of the more dynamic markets in both the corporate and public finance areas,” said Robert G. Avis, vice chairman and director of investment banking for A.G. Edwards. A.G. Edwards also has an investment banking office in Long Beach that concentrates on public finance.
* Buoyed by the recent success of such deals as a public offering for El Segundo-based Kilroy Realty Corp., Prudential Securities Inc. is also beefing up its Los Angeles force. Earlier this year, Prudential brought on board former Drexel Burnham bankers Kevin W. Schultz and Dennis McCarthy as managing directors in Los Angeles to form a consumer group specializing in retail. J. Michael Christiansen joined the firm at the same time as a vice president. This month, Prudential hired Marcia Diaz as a vice president in real estate and Harry Curley as an associate in the consumer group. This brings the number of bankers in the office to 15. Managing Director Michael Burns is the head of the office and runs the telecom media practice. “We continue to be interested in quality people at all levels,” said Schultz. “The business is so good right now.”
* The Los Angeles powerhouse of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, which has more than 100 bankers in its Century City office, has named Mark W. Lanigan and David L. Dennis as new co-heads of the office. Former Drexel Burnham banker Peter Nolan, who once had that job, left earlier this year for Leonard Green & Partners. “September was, I think, our biggest month ever at the firm, and in Los Angeles we’re going full speed,” said Kenny Moelis, one of Los Angeles’ most high-profile investment bankers, and lead banker for the Beverly Hills-based Hilton Hotels Corp.’s bid to take over ITT Corp.
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Staff writer Debora Vrana can be reached at debora.vrana@latimes.com
