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Potential partners include DLJ, Keefe Bruyette-even SBC
UBS Securities's high-profile financial institutions group is shopping for a new home now that its parent is merging into Swiss Bank Corp., according to sources close to the situation.
The FIG group-which includes about 25 professionals who arrange mergers and capital plans for banks, thrifts, and insurance companies-has reportedly held discussions with at least three firms: Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Lehman Brothers and banking specialty boutique Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, according to an insider at one of the firms.
"It is pretty common knowledge that the group has approached just about everybody on Wall Street" the source said.
To be sure, some FIG bankers insist that they could stay with the U.S. investment banking unit of their soon-to-be parentSwiss Bank Corp.'s SBC Warburg Dillon Read. Richard Barrett, who heads the UBS FIG team, recently went to London to meet with Franklin "Fritz" Hobbs, the former chief executive of Dillon Read, who has been placed in charge of global corporate finance, sources said.
"Dick and his people are virtually holding an auction;' noted one UBS insider. "Dillon...