In Brief: RBC Dominion to Enter U.S. Junk Market

subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, has formed a group to enter the U.S. high-yield market.

RBC has hired three Wall Street bankers to lead the group, which will originate, distribute, and trade high-yield bonds. Peter Parent and Max Holmes have joined from Gleacher & Co., the corporate finance specialist that separated from National Westminster Bank in February.

At RBC, Mr. Parent, formerly head of high-yield sales at Gleacher, has been named managing director and head of high-yield sales.

Mr. Holmes, previously head of Gleacher's high yield capital markets, is managing director and head of origination and capital markets.

RBC has also hired Gary Katcher, formerly the senior high-yield trader at Bear Stearns & Co., the No. 3 underwriter of U.S. junk bonds. At RBC he has assumed the role of managing director and head of trading. All three started at the firm this week.

The group - expected to employ 15 to 20 people - is part of RBC's global markets division and reports to that division's head, Andrew Scace. The team is working out of New York initially but plans to relocate to Greenwich, Conn.

"High yield bonds are a core product for the expansion, which is already under way, of our corporate and investment banking presence in the United States," said Gordon Nixon, head of corporate and investment banking for Royal Bank Financial Group, the parent of RBC Dominion.

-- Laura Mandaro

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