STAMFORD, Conn. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CRT Capital Group (“CRT”) and Braver Stern Securities LLC (“Braver Stern”) today announced that CRT has acquired Braver Stern’s institutional sales and trading platform. Braver Stern’s team of senior professionals, led by Joseph Valentine and Rus Margolin, will join CRT’s existing securitized products platform. The newly expanded group will focus on agency and non-agency residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed CDOs, and mortgage-backed pass-through securities.
Joseph Valentine, who served as Head of Institutional Fixed Income Trading at Braver Stern, will join CRT as Co-Head of the Securitized Products Group along with Jeffry Mullins. Prior to joining Braver Stern, Mr. Valentine was a Managing Director at UBS for 5 years and spent 10 years at Bear Stearns in various mortgage-related roles.
Rus Margolin will serve as Head of Non-Agency Trading at CRT and will report to Jeffry Mullins. Before joining Braver Stern in 2008, Mr. Margolin was with UBS, where he worked on its non-agency collateralized mortgage obligation trading desk.
"CRT continues to be able to use its strong capital base and merit-based culture to attract seasoned talent and expand the securitized products choices it can offer to its institutional clients," said Ron Kripalani, Chief Executive Officer of CRT. “We are excited about the addition of this uniquely qualified team of professionals who bring a wealth of experience and institutional relationships to our platform.”
Mr. Valentine said, “CRT’s sophisticated platform and strong capital base allows our team to build on the success we achieved during our time at Braver Stern by enabling us to deliver more product choices to our institutional clients.”
Peter Majar, Managing Director of Freeman & Co. LLC, who advised Braver Stern on the transaction, said, “We are thrilled to have assisted in bringing Braver Stern’s Institutional Business to CRT where we expect the expanded Structured Products platform will be a major force in the industry.”
Following the transaction, Braver Stern will continue to satisfy the needs of its smaller institutional and high net worth client base, which has been the hallmark of the firm since 1991.
CRT has over 20 years experience as an institutionally-focused broker-dealer, and continues to build a world class organization delivering unsurpassed research and trade execution services to its clients by attracting best-in-class talent for its sales, trading, technology and support functions.
About CRT Capital Group LLC
CRT provides security brokerage and research services to over 1,200 institutional accounts with established counterparty relationships around the world. The firm caters to asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds and investment firms. CRT, formerly known as Credit Research and Trading LLC, was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. For more information, please contact John Nielsen at (203) 569-4316 or JNielsen@crtllc.com.
About Braver Stern
Founded in 1991, Braver Stern Securities LLC is an independent broker-dealer specializing in serving smaller institutional and high-net worth clients. The firm provides sales and trading services on behalf of hedge funds, insurance companies, corporations, private banks, commercial banks, mutual funds, REITs, investment advisers and high-net worth individuals.