Macquarie Securities expands sector coverage with key research appointments

Macquarie Securities, the institutional equities arm of Macquarie Group ("Macquarie") (ASX: MQG; ADR: MQBKY), today announced two senior analyst hires in New York and the appointment of Thomas Alonso as Head of US Banks Research for Macquarie.

• Aldo Mazzaferro joins as a Senior Steel, Metals and Mining Analyst. Mr Mazzaferro brings more than 25 years' institutional equities and corporate development experience. Previously, he was Director of Research and Steel & Metals Analyst at Burke & Quick Partners. Prior to this, he was Chief Financial Officer and Director of Steel Development Co. and was a Senior Steel Analyst at Goldman Sachs for eight years after a career in several research related roles covering the steel, metals and energy industries.
• Liz Dunn will join as a Senior Consumer Analyst. She was most recently a Senior Analyst – Specialty Retail & Department Stores at FBR Capital Markets and held similar roles at Thomas Weisel Partners and Prudential Equity Group. She has held a range of financial management and equities analyst roles in the retail and consumer sectors.
• Tom Alonso has been appointed head of the US Banks Research team. His focus will be on large-cap banks, key regionals, and thematic research and he leads an experienced team that comprises senior analysts John Moran, Jonathan Elmi and Bill Young who together cover 60 US bank stocks. He was ranked #1 stock picker in Thrift & Mortgage Finance in the 2011 FT/StarMine Analyst Awards. He joined Fox-Pitt Kelton in September 2007 in its US Banks team prior to its acquisition by Macquarie and was previously the financial services industry analyst for First Investors Management Company and a research associate at Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC covering banks. 

The appointments follow Macquarie's recent announcement of four senior hires to its sales and trading team in New York.

"These appointments reflect our continued investment in our US equities business in sales, trading and research, and Macquarie's strategy of providing deep and experienced coverage in targeted sectors," said Ken Savio, Senior Managing Director and US Head of Macquarie Securities. 

Andrew Root, Managing Director and Head of US Research said: "Aldo, Liz and Tom are experienced analysts with sector knowledge that is relevant and consistent with Macquarie's specialist US coverage. Aligning our focus in key sector verticals for Macquarie continues our commitment to providing specialist sector coverage globally." 

Macquarie Securities is ranked #9 globally for number of companies under coverage and covers more than 500 stocks in the US (as at March 31, 2011).