Raymond James hired Drew Weisman, Steve Tricarico, Russ Shoemaker and Hub Orr from Jefferies, expanding two investment-banking teams. Weisman became head of the new Leveraged Finance and Debt Advisory group. Tricarico, Shoemaker and Orr joined the Consumer and Retail Investment Banking practice as managing directors.
Raymond James announced the consumer appointments on 18 September and the leveraged-finance launch on 21 September. Reuters had reported the four moves from confidential sources while both firms had yet to comment. The bank’s releases now provide direct confirmation of the appointments and their roles.
NEW LEVERAGED-FINANCE PLATFORM
Weisman joined Raymond James after 15 years at Jefferies, where he founded and led its private debt finance and advisory group and headed consumer and retail leveraged finance. Alvin Ng also joined the new unit as a director after seven years in Jefferies’ leveraged-finance group.
The New York-based group will advise on private debt placements, capital-markets transactions, term loan B facilities and high-yield bonds. Raymond James said the unit would support refinancings, recapitalisations, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts for companies and financial sponsors.
CONSUMER TEAM EXPANDS
The consumer expansion added Tricarico and Orr in Charlotte and Shoemaker in New York. Raymond James also appointed Brett Schell as a director, taking its global Consumer and Retail team to 16 managing directors.
The appointments broaden Raymond James’s senior coverage in both financing and sector advisory work. The next test will be whether the expanded teams convert the new capacity into disclosed mandates across leveraged finance and consumer transactions.