Houlihan Lokey Inc. strengthened its chemicals sector coverage in early November with the hire of David Schneider, who spent the last 13 years with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

Managing Director David Schneider Source: Houlihan Lokey Inc.

Schneider, who was appointed as a managing director in the industrials group, had been intrigued by Houlihan since he interacted with the company on a transaction around four years ago.

"[There] was a transaction actually where we were leading it at [Deutsche Bank] and then Houlihan was our co-adviser. … [We] had a successful outcome there and then I think Houlihan was already sort of in the back of my mind as I continued on," Schneider said in an interview with S&P Global.

Schneider emphasized his interest in Houlihan's middle-market prowess, saying, "The middle market is a really intriguing place. Houlihan's done a phenomenal job winning and being really the preeminent player in the middle market … and I like the focus, quite frankly, on the mid-market at Houlihan."

During his time working in Deutsche's chemicals sector, Schneider dealt with debt financings, equity capital raises and "buy and sell-side M&A advisory work for private equity-backed corporates and public strategics."

Schneider believes those 13 years of experience will enable him to easily transition into his new role at Houlihan, where he will be stationed in New York.

"I think from a coverage perspective, it dovetails perfectly with the move to Houlihan," Schneider said.

Schneider's background can also help boost Houlihan's capital markets effort, which is an offering the company has been expanding. During a recent earnings call, Houlihan CEO Scott Lee Beiser said the capital markets business is one of the fastest-growing components of the company's corporate finance business. Schneider believes he will be able to help strengthen the capital markets effort by taking what he learned from his time at Deutsche.

"That's something that I'm pretty excited to be able to contribute meaningfully to, given a lot of my experience was in capital markets," Schneider said.