CHICAGO -- Three municipal bond employees from the Holland, Mich., office of J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons Inc. have left to start a municipal operation at another firm.
Scott VanderWerp, who headed Hilliard Lyons' municipal department in Michigan, said he, Doug Haverdink, and Ryan Ammon left the firm, and this week opened Michigan Municipal Markets Group in Grand Haven, Mich.
VanderWerp, who is president of the group, said it is a division of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Kent-King Securities Co., which did not have a municipal operation. Haverdink is a senior vice president and Ammon is a vice president of the group.
The municipal group will concentrate on trading, underwriting, and selling Michigan municipal bonds to institutional investors, according to VanderWerp. He said that he and his two colleagues have carved out a niche in public finance in areas such as small community hospitals in the state.
VanderWerp said the new operation will mark on the third Michigan-based brokerage firm with a full-service municipal department. The others are First of Michigan Corp. and Roney & Co.
James Rogers, a senior vice president and manager at Louisville, Ky.-based Hilliard Lyons, said the firm shut down its municipal operation in Michigan after VanderWerp, Ammon, and Haverdink left and is now doing all trading and underwriting out of Louisville. He declined to comment on plans for restaffing the firm's Michigan office.
VanderWerp joined Hilliard Lyons in 1992 from the Holland office of Raffensperger, Hughes & Co., along with 14 other municipal bond officials. The exodus caused Raffensperger to file a complaint against Hilliard Lyons with the National Association of Securities Dealers in late 1992.
VanderWerp said the two firms settled the complaint outside of NASD arbitration.
