BTIG Continues Expansion of Fixed Income Platform – Makes Key Senior Hires in High Yield/Distressed, Emerging Markets and Capital Markets

New York – February 8, 2010 – BTIG LLC, a broker dealer specializing in institutional trading and related brokerage services, today announced that its Fixed Income Group has hired seven senior professionals in the areas High Yield/Distressed, Emerging Markets and Capital Markets. These hires continue BTIG’s ongoing expansion in the Fixed Income market and demonstrate the continued growth and diversification of BTIG’s fixed income platform.

BTIG has hired Chris Majak, Kerry Stein and Michael Satzberg in Fixed Income High Yield/Distressed; Tim Goodell, Diogenes Vazquez and Antonio Lopez-Torrero in Fixed Income Emerging Markets; and Peter Burton in Fixed Income Capital Markets. The addition of these industry veterans further enhances BTIG’s capabilities in Fixed Income Sales and Trading. BTIG has hired more than 75 of the strongest fixed income professionals since the group was launched in February of last year.

“Our clients are responding to the growing breadth of our team, finding them liquidity for their positions and giving them high quality ideas and guidance from our respected desk analysts,” said Jon Bass, Co-Head of global Fixed Income at BTIG. “These hires represent our continued efforts to rapidly build-out our Global Fixed Income capability.”

Majak joins BTIG in Fixed Income High Yield Sales. He was previously at Polygon Investments where he traded high yield and distressed credit. Prior to Polygon, Chris spent nine years (six in the US and three in Europe) as a high yield/ distressed salesperson at Miler Tabak, KBC and Barclays.

Stein comes to BTIG from Jones Trading, where he was the head of Fixed Income and Bank Debt Trading. He is joining BTIG as a credit salesman focusing on high yield and special situations. Over his 25 year career, Stein has traded high grade, emerging market and high yield debt at Drexel Burnham, Kidder Peabody/Paine Webber and Morgan Joseph.

Satzberg joins BTIG’s Los Angeles office in Fixed Income High Yield/Distressed Trading. He previously worked at Sun Capital Partners, where he was responsible for the development and management of the distressed debt and private corporate loan portfolio in the Sun Capital Securities Fund. Prior to joining Sun Capital Partners, Satzberg was a Senior Vice President with Jefferies & Company, Inc., where he was responsible for trading and principal debt investments in several industry sectors. Prior to that, Satzberg was a portfolio manager with 1838 Investment Advisors. He has also served as a manager with Coopers & Lybrand.

Goodell joins BTIG in Fixed Income Emerging Market Sales. He joins BTIG from Ropemaker Capital LLC, a New York-based broker-dealer where he was Co-Founder and Co-President. Prior to Ropemaker Capital, Goodell spent nine years at UBS Investment Bank as Head Trader for Latin American structured credit and later as an Executive Director in Structured Credit Sales. Prior to that, he worked at Hencorp in Miami and at Merrill Lynch in various locations.

Vazquez comes to BTIG from ACMV Capital, a private equity/venture capital fund with investments in Argentina and Chile. He previously spent five years at Santander Investments in New York, executing both debt and equity capital markets transactions. Vazquez participated in the origination and execution of US dollar-denominated offerings of fixed income securities and syndicated loans by Latin American corporate and sovereign issuers, and assessed, structured and marketed primary & secondary equity offerings of leading Latin American and European companies. He joins BTIG’s Fixed Income Emerging Market Sales team.

Lopez-Torrero joins BTIG in Fixed Income Emerging Market Sales. He comes to BTIG from G-O holdings, where he traded emerging markets corporate bonds. Prior to that, he was at Marathon Asset Management, where he co-managed their global emerging markets local currency portfolio. Lopez-Torrero previously spent seven years at Merrill Lynch, where he traded Latin American local currencies and fixed income derivatives.

Burton joins BTIG from Emporia Capital Management, a middle market CLO with approximately $1.5 billion of assets under management. While at Emporia, he was responsible for sourcing, screening, investing and managing a portfolio of middle-market leveraged loan investments. Burton will be part of the Fixed Income Capital Markets Group. He began his career in the investment banking analyst program at JP Morgan Chase and Co. He has spent the last nine years investing, originating and managing transactions in the leveraged loan space.

BTIG’s Fixed Income Group was launched by Bass, formerly of UBS, and John Purcell, formerly of Citigroup, who together bring 50 years of fixed income experience to the BTIG team. The group focuses on sales and trading of credit products, which cover the full credit spectrum from investment grade to distressed debt.

About BTIG
BTIG LLC is a premier institutional brokerage and fund services company. Founded in 2002, BTIG, including through its affiliates, employs over 350 professionals around the world. BTIG serves over 1,200 institutional customers and offers services from five divisions: Equity Trading, Global Fixed Income, Prime Brokerage, Outsource Trading and Direct Market Access. BTIG has offices in New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Greenwich, Red Bank, Aspen and Orinda. The firm also has affiliates in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.

BTIG LLC is a member of FINRA and SIPC

BTIG Australia Limited ACN 128 554 601 is a member of ASIC and ASX

BTIG Hong Kong Limited, Exchange Participant of SEHK, licensed and regulated by the SFC

BTIG Ltd is a member of the LSE and is authorized and regulated by the FSA

BTIG Singapore Pte Ltd is registered and licensed with MAS

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Caroline Harris at 212.279.3115, ext. 222. [email protected]
Kelsea Michael at 212.279.3115, ext. 231, [email protected]
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