Nomura Securities Hires Steven Seltzer as Co-Head of Leveraged Finance
Nomura Holdings Inc. hired Steven Seltzer to be its co-head of leveraged finance as Japan’s biggest brokerage seeks to build its U.S. investment bank amid a revival of leveraged buyouts and takeovers.
Seltzer, 45, joins Julie Persily, 44, as co-head in New York, jointly responsible for originating and marketing leveraged finance transactions in the Americas, according to an e-mailed statement from Nomura Securities North America LLC. Seltzer moved from North Sea Partners LLC, an advisory firm he joined in March 2009. Previously he ran the global high-yield syndicate desk at Morgan Stanley.
Nomura has said it plans to invest 250 billion yen ($2.9 billion) to expand in the U.S. after it bought Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Asian and European units in 2008. The company is recruiting bankers and debt traders as private-equity firms deploy what London-based researcher Preqin Ltd. estimated to be $507 billion in capital committed by investors before the buyout market collapsed in mid-2007.
Persily and Seltzer report to Glenn Schiffman, 41, head of investment banking for the Americas, who told Bloomberg News in June Nomura is “in the early stages of creating a full-scale investment bank in the U.S.”
Nomura “has started a significant hiring program due for completion by year-end,” the release said.
Leveraged Buyouts
High-yield, high-risk debt issuance has risen as leveraged buyouts return globally. The Carlyle Group and TPG Capital agreed today to acquire Healthscope Ltd., an owner and operator of private hospitals in Australia, for approximately $2.35 billion including assumed debt. Carlyle also said on July 15 it plans to acquire NBTY Inc., a manufacturer and marketer of nutritional supplements, for $3.8 billion.
More than $180 billion of leveraged loans have been underwritten this year, up from $72.1 billion during the corresponding period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Banks have also arranged $124.4 billion of high-yield bonds in 2010, compared with $67.7 billion for the similar period last year, Bloomberg data show.
Bloomberg reported July 12 that Persily, a former co-head of U.S. leveraged finance at Citigroup Inc. joined Nomura. The bank also hired Stephen Rielly, as head U.S. loan trader, to start a sales and trading desk in New York, according to a person familiar with the situation who declined to be identified because it had not been publicly announced.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kristen Haunss in New York at khaunss@bloomberg.net
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