Brean Capital LLC broadens its muni platform

Three municipal bond veterans with a combined experience of over 90 years are joining the ranks of independent investment bank Brean Capital LLC.

William “Bill” Mangan, Greg Swanson, and John Paskalides, who have extensive industry knowledge and experience, will serve as managing directors in the fixed income division and will lead an expansion of the New York City-based firm’s municipal platform.

“The addition of Bill, Greg, and John will allow us to substantially broaden our product offering, and better serve our clients,” Rob Fine, Brean Capital chief executive officer, said in a recent interview.

The team will officially join the firm on Nov. 28, according to Fine.

The firm’s fixed income business provides sales, trading, and banking services on a wide range of mortgage and asset-backed, U.S. Treasury and government agency securities, structured products, corporate bonds, and municipal securities in its 15 locations nationwide.

Fine said the trio will be a strategic fit for the firm on its mission to branch out further into the municipal industry, which it entered almost a decade ago with a relatively narrow scope of focus.

“Their knowledge, insights, and experience will be invaluable in expanding Brean’s municipal bond capabilities, and in helping our clients navigate the crosscurrents in today’s municipal bond marketplace,” Fine said about the new team in a release.

“The current [municipal] market is presenting bond yields that we haven’t seen in almost 15 years,” he continued. “I believe we’re approaching a very attractive entry point to increase exposure to most fixed income products.”

Mangan, who will head Brean’s municipal bond department, was a former managing director in institutional sales at Citigroup Global Markets, with over 30 years of experience.

Swanson, who is joining as a trader, was most recently a managing director and head of the municipal bond proprietary trading desk at Citi, where he spent 28 years.

With more than 34 years of municipal trading experience, Paskalides was a former managing director at Citi, where he joined in 2003 after beginning his career at Merrill Lynch & Co. in 1985. He will join the firm as a trader.

“While we’re involved in municipals and corporate credit, we’ve been active with our clients primarily in Treasuries, government agencies, MBS, ABS, CMBS and structured products,” Fine told The Bond Buyer. 

“The expansion to our muni sales and trading team will allow us to broaden the products and services we can provide to our existing client base, and hopefully gain new clients as well.”

The team will also help broaden the firm’s current focus on fixed income strategy, corporate finance, and advisory investment banking, as well as high-quality investment ideas and investment banking services to institutional investors and corporate clients, Fine said.

Mangan said the team is eager to partner with Brean on its quest for municipal expansion.

“They have an exceptionally strong institutional fixed-income platform, and we’re confident that we’ll be able to leverage our decades of sales and trading experience to expand Brean’s client-focused municipal bond presence,” Mangan said in the release.

Brean’s fixed income team serves over 1,000 institutional clients, including insurance companies, mutual funds, private equity funds, state and sovereign wealth funds, banks and credit unions.  

Fine said the new team will bring decades of experience in sales and trading across the spectrum of municipal bond products, while they also have “outstanding” leadership skills and will be instrumental in the continued growth of the firm’s municipal bond department. 

“Our near-term plan is to continue growing our muni bond trading and distribution capabilities, with an eye on banking down the road,” Fine added.