Don't tell the New York City traffic police, but Wall Street runs both ways where jobs are concerned.
After Chase Manhattan Corp. snagged Marc Davis, a co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Salomon Brothers Inc., to lead its growing advisory effort, Salomon Brothers returned the favor.
The investment bank recently hired Mavis Taintor, an elite leveraged- lending specialist from Chase, in conjunction with two other high-level appointments in its own growing loan syndication group.
"This is another indication that the lines between the (big investment banking) firms and the major banks are becoming more and more blurred," said Tony Lord, a managing director and executive recruiter at Ward Howell International. "There's a much greater willingness on both sides to have people move between the two types of businesses."
Commercial and investment banks are both striving to offer their corporate clients a wide range of products, from high-yield debt finance to advisory work to senior bank loans.
As commercial banks like Chase Manhattan Corp. and Bankers Trust New York Corp. have built their investment banking units with Wall Street professionals, Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley & Co., and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette have been raiding the commercial banks to staff their new loan syndication shops.
"One-stop shopping is extremely powerful and user-friendly," said Richard H. Ivers, a managing director and head of Salomon's new syndicated lending team. "Financial buyers, in general, find that there's much less friction and conflict when you can go to one shop for all debt financing in acquisitions," said the former CS First Boston managing director.
Salomon plans to finance the new group with $150 million of equity and will borrow enough to loan up to $1 billion.
Mr. Ivers said that he hopes to build on the fixed- income franchise at Salomon, particularly in loan securitizations.
Salomon ranked third in high-yield debt finance through Aug. 11, with a 12% market share, according to Securities Data Co.
Townsend Weekes, a former vice president at Citicorp, joins Mr. Ivers and Ms. Taintor at Salomon.
Raphael Soifer, a bank analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., said that the loan product provides a good complement to the other areas that Salomon has been building.
"Salomon has been growing its investment banking business, both in fixed income and in equities, and this is a natural adjunct to that," he said.
