In Brief: Barclays Hires Three for Junk Bond Group

Barclays Capital, the U.S. investment banking unit of Great Britain's Barclays PLC, added three new bankers to its fledgling high-yield group last week.

Frank Sekula joined Barclays from the New York office of BT Alex. Brown Inc. to head European high-yield capital markets. He will be based in London.

Additionally, senior high-yield saleswoman Lalyn Kenyon joined Barclays from Salomon Smith Barney, and Joe Muritore came over from Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette. Mr. Muritore will act as a chief operating officer of the global high-yield business.

The new hires all report to Joe Bencivenga, global head of high-yield, who came to Barclays in September from BT Alex. Brown Inc. to build its junk bond business.

Since then, Mr. Bencivenga has hired seven high-yield professionals in New York, and two in London, in addition to bringing staff into his group from other parts of the bank.

"I look forward to positioning Barclays Capital as one of the premier global high-yield houses," Mr. Bencivenga said. "One of the biggest growth sectors for high-yield is clearly Europe, as many U.S. firms allocate large resources to European markets and the burgeoning European high-yield market."

Barclays, with co-lead Salomon Smith Barney, completed its first co-led junk bond deal in late January, a $430 million issue for FLAG Ltd., a Hamilton, Bermuda-based fiber optic cable company. Barclays also arranged a $370 million bank facility for FLAG.

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