Though the majority of the MBS/ABS group was formed in 2008 and 2009, Jefferies continues to expand in this area.
“There is an opportunity to serve not only the secondary market but we look for the new-issue market to possibly recover as well,” said William Jennings, who co-heads Jefferies’ MBS/ABS group along with Johan Eveland.
Jennings said that there has been an emergence in the Jefferies fixed income brand name. “We were able to take advantage of market dislocations and hire very senior talent,” added Jennings, who co-heads the group and who was formerly at Greenwich Capital and prior to that at Lehman Brothers. Most of Jennings and Evelands’ current colleagues from those two firms are now at Jefferies.
The firm’s MBS/ABS group, which is part of the fixed-income division at the investment bank, now has around 100 sales, trading and origination professionals based in U.S., London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Jennings said that the firm is now focused on offering market liquidity to customers. “It has become a market share game,” he said. “Providing liquidity and ideas is imperative for any investment bank to compete longer term.”
Jennings said Jefferies has been able to make an impact in a variety of their businesses. An example is a top five market share in agency multifamily CMBS as well as a top five presence since 2008 in the non-agency re-remic market.
As proof of the firm’s commitment to further growth in various areas, recently, it hired Erez Biala as a managing director and global co-head of CLO and CDO trading.
Biala, who will handle the U.S. side of the business, is partnering with global co-head Sharif Anbar-Colas, who is based in London, to manage the firm’s CLO/CDO trading business within the broader MBS/ABS group.
Biala brings to Jefferies nearly 10 years of experience in the structured markets, and joins the firm from Barclays Capital where he was a member of the distressed special situations trading effort. He previously focused on CDO trading and origination for five years at Lehman. Before that, he worked in Morgan Stanley's CDO origination team.
The newest addition comes after the firm appointed Mark Green as a managing director and head of CMBS capital markets back in March.
Green became part of a team comprising Joe Accurso and Lisa Pendergast, who co-head CMBS trading and strategy and Dana Arrighi who heads CRE origination.
Green has 11 years of CMBS capital markets experience and joins Jefferies from UBS, where for four years he was a managing director and head of CMBS capital markets.
