Wachovia Securities Expands Fixed Income Platform in Europe with a Number of Strategic Hires

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wachovia Securities announced today it has expanded the capabilities of its European fixed income platform through a series of key hires in the areas of Global Rates and Real Estate Capital Markets.

"We have invested in some significant talent that will round out our capabilities in certain key areas of the business," said Atul Bajpai, chief executive officer for the Corporate and Investment Bank in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "We are maintaining a careful, measured approach to expansion, focusing on those areas where we excel as a company and can add the most value for our clients."

In the Global Rates group, Hans-Peter Schoech has joined Wachovia as director and head of structured rates and hybrids. Schoech is based in London and reports to Brian Zwerner, managing director and head of Global Structured Rates and Correlation Credit. Prior to joining Wachovia, Schoech was a director at Dresdner Kleinwort, where he built the hybrid derivatives business as part of the exotic interest rate desk. He holds a Diplom in Mathematics from Freie Universitaet Berlin.

Mo Noubir and Arsene Lahoud have also joined the Global Rates team and are based in London. Noubir joins as director and head of European quantitative analysis and reports to Paul Romanelli, managing director and head of quantitative analysis. Noubir joins from Dresdner Kleinwort, where he was a vice president in the Global Derivatives Product Development group. He holds a Ph.D. in Probability and Finance from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees. Lahoud joins as senior quantitative analyst and reports to Noubir. He comes to Wachovia from Goldman Sachs, where he was a quantitative strategist in the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities division. Lahoud graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and holds a DEA in Probability and Finance from University Paris VI.

Schoech, Noubir and Lahoud join other key hires made in the Global Rates group over the past year, including Nigel Dyble as managing director and head of Global Rates in London, Nordine Farsi as director and head of European Structuring and Lei Zhang as a vice president in the correlation credit group.

"Our goal is to extend our market-leading Global Rates and CDO platforms from the U.S. to Europe," said Zwerner. "Our advantage in the market is that we are product agnostic, delivering solutions to clients to maximize their risk/return across all fixed income asset classes, including rates, FX, commodities and credit."

Wachovia's Real Estate Capital Markets (RECM) group has hired a number of professionals in Germany to support the growth of its European commercial real estate business.

Thomas Brand will head the newly formed Berlin office, Frank Iggesen will head the newly formed Hamburg Office and Felix Hasse will head the newly formed Munich Office. Brand and Iggesen were previously at Aareal Bank, where they headed the branches in Berlin and Hamburg respectively, while Hasse joins from Roland Berger, a management consulting firm.

Damian Wosnitzka and Peter Miller have joined the Frankfurt office as deal managers, responsible for managing the German mortgage loan conduit operations. Wosnitzka and Miller were previously at affiliates of Hypo Real Estate Bank. Heribert Kinanteder has also joined the group as senior underwriter working from the Munich office. Kinanteder came from Allgemeine HypothekenBank Rheinboden. In addition, Michael Wetzel has been named head of Risk Management in Germany. He is based in Frankfurt and was previously at Aareal Bank.

All new senior hires except Wetzel report to Peter Riemenschneider, managing director and co-head of RECM Europe. Wetzel reports to Woody Brewer, head of European risk.

"Our Real Estate Capital Markets group continues to be a leader in the U.S. market, and we look forward to replicating this success in Europe," said Bill Green, managing director and head of Real Estate Capital Markets. "We see tremendous potential for our products and expertise in Germany. Adding talent to the group positions us to compete more effectively in this important market."

About Wachovia's Corporate and Investment Banking Group

Wachovia's Corporate and Investment Banking group offers a full suite of products and services to public and private companies, institutional investors, financial institutions and the financial sponsor community. Investment banking and the global markets businesses (fixed income and equities) operate under the Wachovia Securities brand and have become a global force in the capital markets arena by providing comprehensive advisory, capital raising, structuring and execution services. Wachovia's Corporate and Investment Bank also includes the 3rd largest Treasury Services business in the U.S., as well as leading asset-based lending and global correspondent banking services. The firm is built on a cohesive culture that encourages creative ideas, capital solutions, and experienced advice to all clients.

Wachovia Securities is the trade name for the corporate, investment banking and capital markets businesses of Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiaries, including Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC (WCM) and Wachovia Securities International Limited, which is authorized and regulated by The Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom. Wachovia Securities is also the trade name for the retail brokerage businesses of WCM's affiliates, Wachovia Securities, LLC, Wachovia Securities Financial Networks, LLC, Wexford Clearing, LLC, and First Clearing, LLC.

About Wachovia

Wachovia Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, providing 13.4 million household and business relationships with a broad range of banking, asset management, wealth management and corporate and investment banking products and services. Wachovia has retail and commercial banking operations in 16 states with 3,109 offices from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California. Two core businesses operate under the Wachovia Securities brand name: retail brokerage in 49 states and in Latin America, and corporate and investment banking in selected industries nationwide. Globally, Wachovia serves clients through more than 40 international offices. Online banking is available at wachovia.com; online brokerage products and services at wachoviasec.com, and investment products and services at evergreeninvestments.com. Wachovia had assets of $553.6 billion, market capitalization of $86.0 billion and stockholders' equity of $48.9 billion at June 30, 2006.