2 US Black investment banks merge to dominate financial market

Seeing the need to consolidate their gains, two black investment banks in the US have merged with the fine details to be concluded by January 2020, reports Black Enterprise.

The two – Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. L.L.C. and The Williams Capital Group L.P. – will now be known as Siebert Williams Shank & Co. L.L.C. While Siebert Cisneros Shank is No. 2 in tax-exempt securities with $5.4 billion in lead issues and No. 4 in taxable securities with $1.1 billion in lead issues on the BE Investment Banks list, the Williams Capital Group L.P. is No. 4 in tax-exempt securities and No. 2 in taxable securities with $1.1 billion in lead issues. The company has served over 65 businesses that are Fortune 100 companies.

SCS has beefed up its position in corporate finance, taking part in 198 debt and equity transactions valued at more than $517 billion since November 2015 for corporations such as Walmart, Delta, and McDonald’s. The public is to gain from the two entities’ strong industry position in corporate and municipal underwriting, and debt and equity sales and trading.

While Henry Cisneros, the former Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Bill Clinton remains a principal of the combined firm and will hold the title of vice chairman, Suzanne Shank will serve as president and chief executive officer. Christopher Williams will assume the role of chairman of its board of directors.

Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. L.L.C. originally founded in 1996 is a top-ranked lead manager of municipal bond transactions and has been the sector’s leader among minority- and women-owned firms and No. 2 among all firms as co-manager of municipal bond offerings. Williams Capital, founded in 1994 has consistently held the No.1 ranking as a co-manager of U.S. corporate debt as well as a leading non-bank commercial paper dealer.

The merger puts the partners at a stronger capital base that is now significantly larger while being in a position of power to continue slugging it out with the best firms on Wall Street; having also been listed among BE’s Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street.

The merged company will be headquartered in New York and Oakland with more than 15 offices across the nation plus 750 institutional investors.

Cisneros sums it best when he submits: “This is a victory for the American way of enterprise, the pairing of two firms that have achieved the top tier of their fields to create one firm that is not only the nation’s leading financial services WBE but also now occupies the rarefied air of one of the industry’s most successful multi-asset, non-bank financial players. I could not be more proud of my partners.”