SSB ramps up credit structuring

Salomon Smith Barney's (SSB) credit derivatives group in New York has hired collateralised bond obligation (CBO) structurer Steve Segretta from CIBC World Markets. Doug Warren, co-head of SSB's credit derivatives unit, said he is looking to hire two to three more credit structurers in the coming weeks.

Segretta will report jointly to Warren and Rick Caplan, the Citigroup investment banking unit's other co-head of North American credit derivatives. He will work on synthetic CDOs in the group's portfolio team.

SSB's North American credit derivatives structuring unit also contains a team dedicated to asset swaps, total return swaps and repackaging. Warren declined to comment where the additional hires would be allocated, but stated the new hiring was in response to growth in the structured credit market.

According to one analyst, who declined to be named, CIBC World Markets was a particularly strong player in cash-funded collateralised loan obligation (CLO) deals in 1999 and 2000, but has done fewer deals overall since 2001. The analyst noted that economic objectives of cash-funded CLOs were now being met through synthetic structures.