BankBoston Signs Up A Wall Street Veteran To Lead M&A Team

BankBoston Corp. this week became the latest commercial bank to hire a Wall Street professional to head its mergers and acquisitions practice.

BancBoston Securities Inc. appointed Peter Lombard managing director and head of mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Lombard, 41, spent the past two years at Prudential Securities as a managing director in M&A, and more than eight years at Merrill Lynch & Co.

At BancBoston, Mr. Lombard is responsible for managing the bank's strategic advisory activities and broadening its M&A capabilities. He reports to John K. Giannuzzi, managing director and head of corporate finance.

"I view our job as to take the M&A business and help penetrate the client base, and bring to them an awareness of our product capabilities and avail ourselves of the opportunities that are there," said Mr. Lombard in an interview.

He brings the M&A staff to nine people. The group works primarily with midsize companies in New England and nationally within BankBoston's industry specialties, including real estate, media and communications, energy and utilities, transportation, high technology, environmental services, and financial institutions.

According to BancBoston Securities, the section 20 subsidiary of BankBoston Corp., the advisory group completed 15 deals with nearly $1 billion of aggregate M&A volume in 1996.

Omri Ben-Amos

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IBJ Schroder Bank and Trust Co. hired George Zombek as chief operating officer of IBJ Schroder Capital Corp., a small-business investment company subsidiary of the bank.

Mr. Zombek joins from Canterbury Mezzanine Capital, a mezzanine finance fund, where he was a principal.

Before that, Mr. Zombek was with Barclays Mezzanine Group and Barclays' mergers and acquisitions group.

IBJ Schroder Capital Corp. provides mezzanine finance for acquisitions, expansion capital, management buyouts, and recapitalizations.

"Mezzanine finance is integral to the bank's overall middle-market banking strategy," said Larry S. Zilavy, IBJ Schroder Capital Corp's president. "We are looking forward to strengthening our niche as a mezzanine investor to the private equity community, one of our key targets.

"It is the natural extension to being a more valuable debt provider to the market we serve," he added.

IBJ Schroder has been steadily building its middle-market corporate finance expertise. The bank recently promoted Mr. Zilavy to senior managing director and head of middle-market corporate finance and president of IBJ Capital Corp.

It also named two bankers in its middle-market corporate finance division-Christopher Mangan and DeVer Warner-managing directors in IBJ Schroder.

"Our division specifically focuses on providing leveraged products to the middle market," said Mr. Zilavy. "There's a lot of competition as larger and smaller banks come into the market, but we've demonstrated our commitment by putting together a team of seasoned lenders who've been in the business for many years."

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