Chase Promotes Specialist In Health-Care Industry to Co-Leader of M&A

Chase Manhattan Corp. has quietly restructured its mergers and acquisitions advisory team, giving more responsibility to a health-care industry specialist it hired last year.

Managing director Doug Braunstein last month was promoted to co-head of M&A, a Chase spokesman said.

He shares the title with Mark C. Davis, a former Salomon M&A chief who joined Chase in 1996 with a mandate to build an M&A team.

Mr. Davis has since added other duties to his plate. Last month he assumed responsibility for several more industry groups that had reported directly to Chase's investment banking chief, James B. Lee Jr.

These include commodities, utilities, forest products, Canadian companies, and a mixed bag of western and midwestern companies.

Last year Mr. Davis also took responsibility for Chase's global transportation group.

Mr. Braunstein, meanwhile, has taken charge of Chase's health-care client focus group. He joined Chase's M&A group last year from Merrill Lynch & Co., where he specialized in health-care M&A.

Domestic M&A remains dominated by the bulge-bracket firms.

Chase ranked 13th among domestic M&A advisers during the last 12 months, compared with 14th in the prior 12 months, according to Securities Data Co.

But the bank has shown much stronger growth in the health-care segment of the M&A market.

It jumped to 8th position in health-care M&A-with 8.8% of the market- during the last 12 months. That was up from 12th place and 6.2% of the market a year earlier.