Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Investment Banking Further Enhances Financial Institutions Group Leadership With Addition Of Specialty Finance Team

NEW YORK and LONDON, June 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. ("Oppenheimer"), a leading investment bank, wealth manager, and a subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings (NYSE: OPY), today announced the expansion of its Financial Institutions investment banking group with the addition of veteran bankers Cliff Booth and JD Nelson. Mr. Booth has been named Managing Director and Head of Specialty Finance Investment Banking and Mr. Nelson appointed as Managing Director in Specialty Finance. The two senior bankers will accelerate the growth of the firm's Financial Institutions Group (FIG) by providing Oppenheimer clients with expert strategic advice and access to capital across the growing field of non-bank lending and other specialty finance verticals.

Mr. Booth and Mr. Nelson have worked together as a team since 2005 in the specialty finance sector advising non-bank lenders, BDCs, REITs and mortgage REITs. Mr. Booth started the specialty finance group at Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC 13 years ago and built it into a leading national practice. Additionally, Mr. Booth built the REIT practice and was Head of Investment Banking for 6 years during his tenure at Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC. Prior to Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC, Mr. Booth was Head of Financial Institutions and Real Estate Investment Banking at Ferris Baker Watts and was in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group at First Union Securities. Mr. Nelson covered the specialty finance and real estate sectors over the last 13 years at Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC and Ferris Baker Watts and has executed over 150 capital markets and merger and acquisition transactions for his clients.

Both Mr. Booth and Mr. Nelson, who are based in Baltimore, MD, will report directly to Gilbert Dychiao, Managing Director and Head of Oppenheimer's Financial Institutions Group.

Oppenheimer also announced that it has added Mitchel Penn as Managing Director, Equity Research, expanding the firm's coverage of the Specialty Finance sector with a specific focus on business development corporations (BDCs). Mr. Penn most recently served as Managing Director, Equity Research at Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC, where he covered BDCs and Mortgage REITs. Prior to Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC, Mr. Penn was a portfolio manager at Legg Mason Capital Management and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Aetna Life Insurance Company.

Mr. Penn is also based in Baltimore and will report to John Parks, Director of Research.

Mr. Dychiao said, "Expanding into the fast-growing and strategically vital specialty finance segment with Cliff and JD at the helm will provide our clients with differentiated, high-value solutions to support their financial and strategic objectives while continuing to round out our global investment banking capabilities across the financial institutions space. With this announcement building on our recent additions of Joseph Lovell as Managing Director within our Asset Management team, Philippe Jacquemard as Managing Director covering European Insurance and Leslie Fenton and Ritendra Roy as Managing Directors for US Insurance, we are continuing to put in place the tools and capabilities to provide insightful, unconflicted advice to clients across the full scope of the rapidly-evolving financial services universe."

This most recent enhancement to Oppenheimer's FIG team supports the firm's broader investment banking growth strategy, which emphasizes the ongoing, thoughtful expansion of the firm's senior leadership expertise across key industries and sectors.

This approach, coupled with ongoing investment in Oppenheimer's leading equity research capabilities, has been one of the key drivers of the firm's record-setting results for its investment banking business over the past year. Full-year investment banking revenue of $222 million for 2020 increased more than 70% over 2019, while Q1 2021 revenue for the division increased 384% versus Q1 2020, to $124.5 million. The expansion of Oppenheimer's FIG investment banking group is expected to build even further on this momentum.

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. (Oppenheimer), a principal subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (OPY on the New York Stock Exchange), and its affiliates provide a full range of wealth management, securities brokerage and investment banking services to high-net-worth individuals, families, corporate executives, local governments, businesses and institutions. For more information, please visit www.oppenheimer.com.

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SOURCE Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.