Lone Star Funds, the investment firm that bought $31 billion of mortgage-backed securities from Merrill Lynch & Co. for 22 cents on the dollar, has hired the Merrill trader who negotiated the deal, Donald Quintin.
Quintin, 37, who became Bank of America Corp.'s head of distressed structured-debt trading after the lender bought Merrill in early 2009, is to join Lone Star in early August, said Ed Trissel, a spokesman for the Dallas firm. Quintin is to be based in London, Trissel said.
Then-Merrill Chief Executive Officer John Thain, 55, asked Quintin to help liquidate the firm's collateralized debt obligations in July 2008 after the instruments contributed to almost $19 billion of net losses during the prior four quarters.
Merrill had to book an additional $4.4 billion loss on the sale that year to Lone Star, even after agreeing to finance 75% of the transaction.
