HilltopSecurities hires 12 from Prager as it expands in New York, California

HilltopSecurities Inc. has hired 12 municipal bond veterans from Prager & Co. LLC to join its public finance group in New York and California.

Prager filed for dissolution as a firm with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Dec. 20 and Dallas, Texas-based HilltopSecurities stepped in and hired the banking team, which will bolster its municipal presence on the East and West Coasts.

The bankers will be based in New York City, San Francisco and Sherman Oaks, California.

The team includes Fred Prager, David Hetz, Rochelle Powell, Ian Prager, Colin O’Neill, A.J. Prager, T.J. Sheehy, Colin Walsh, Bjorn Foster, Augie Harrigan, Michael Dymond and Sam Sheppard.

The bankers were all hired individually, David Medanich, co-head of public finance at HilltopSecurities, told The Bond Buyer.

“It was not an acquisition,” he said, adding there were a lot of different reasons for hiring the bankers and keeping them together as a team.

“We’ve been talking over time with them, maybe six months to a year, about doing something like this, and then it just got to the point where it made a lot of sense for them to join us,” he said. “It gives us more presence in both New York and California.”

Medanich noted the muni bond industry is based on people on as well as performance.

“This is a relationship business and they have great relationships,” he said. “And the reason you have great relationships is because you’re good at what you do.”

Founded by Fred Prager in 1987, Prager & Co. became one the nation’s top providers of public finance services to higher education institutions. It also has experience across other sectors including healthcare, public power and non-profits.

“We are excited to welcome such an accomplished team of municipal finance professionals whose deep experience serving higher education institutions and other public entities is expected to enhance our public finance efforts across the country,” said Brad Winges, HilltopSecurities president and CEO.

In the 2022 municipal financial advisor rankings, HilltopSecurities came in at number three, working on 482 deals worth $22.67 billion, a market share of 7.4%, according to Refinitiv data. As managing underwriter, Hilltop ranked 18, doing 159 deals worth $3.9 billion, a market share of 1.1%.

In addition to municipal advisory and underwriting, HilltopSecurities provides services such as asset management and reinvestment, hedging and structuring strategies, arbitrage rebate, continuing disclosure and other forms of advisory work.

“We do a number of different things that Prager didn’t really have the capacity to do,” Medanich said. “They saw that as a platform where they could really take advantage of their expertise and knowledge and their relationships — and we felt the same way. That’s what kind of brought us all together. “

Fred Prager will become a senior managing director at HilltopSecurities based in New York City; he has more than 40 years of experience. Before founding Prager & Co., he managed L.F. Rothschild & Co.’s West Coast public finance business.

“We are excited to join such a respected firm with its proven leadership and long record of success in the industry,” Fred Prager said in a statement.

Hetz joins as senior managing director in New York; he also has more than 40 years of experience. He was formerly managing director and CEO at Prager and previously served as vice chair of Cain Brothers & Co. and co-founder and managing partner of Cutlass Capital.

Powell joins as managing director in New York; she has more than 25 years of experience. Prior to working at Prager, she was a senior vice president in the public finance department of Greenwich Partners.

Ian Prager joins as managing director in San Francisco. He joined Prager in 2005 and before that, he spent several years with Lockheed Martin.

O’Neill joins as senior vice president in New York; he has more than 25 years of experience. He began his career at Morgan Stanley and worked with his own registered investment advisor firm based in Connecticut.

A.J. Prager joins as senior vice president in Sherman Oaks; he has more than 15 years of experience. He began his career at Bear Stearns and also worked at Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Sheehy joins as senior vice president in New York; he has more than 15 years of not-for-profit and municipal finance experience. Before Prager, he worked for the Yuba Group, Loop Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley.

Walsh joins as senior vice president in New York; he has more than 20 years of experience. Before working at Prager, he was senior vice president in the education and nonprofit group at Wells Fargo. He also worked at in Fitch Ratings public finance group and at Allied Irish Bank.

Foster joins as vice president in San Francisco; he has more than 25 years of experience. Before working at Prager, he co-owned a web development company and worked in a variety of roles with digital media companies.

Harrigan joins as assistant vice president in New York. Before working at Prager, he was director of business information technology for the Universal Music Group in Los Angeles.

Dymond joins as assistant vice president in New York. Before Prager, he was as an economic consultant with Analysis Group.

Sheppard joins as assistant vice president in New York; he has more than five years of experience. Prior to working at Prager, he was an associate at S&P Global Ratings.

“We think this team will be an incredible addition to what we do,” Medanich said. “It really does help us on the East Coast and on the West Coast, too. You don’t often find bankers of this quality, that as a group you can get to come over. Which was kind a neat deal actually.”