Houlihan Lokey Howard Zukin Inc

Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, a closely held investment bank based in Los Angeles, said it hired Jefferies & Co.'s director of mergers and acquisitions, Gregg Feinstein, as a managing director and co-chair of its M&A commitment committee. Feinstein, who has 22 years of experience as an investment banker, including stints at Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Bros. Kuhn Loeb, will join Houlihan Lokey's New York office, the company said.

Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, a closely held Los Angeles-based investment bank, said it had hired six bankers from Piper Jaffray Cos. to help it win business from technology firms. One of the six, Jason Hutchinson, will be head of technology mergers and acquisitions. Houlihan Lokey was founded in 1970 and focuses on deals involving companies with market values of as much as $500 million.

Los Angeles-based investment banking firm Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin said Sunday that it had agreed to be acquired by Orix Corp. of Japan for $500 million in cash and stock. Orix, based in Tokyo, operates a range of businesses including financial services, aircraft leasing and a Japanese professional baseball team. Under terms of the agreement, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2006, a new holding company would combine Houlihan Lokey with Orix USA, the U.S.

Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc., operator of the Sizzler steakhouse chain, said Wednesday that it had hired an advisor to weigh options including a sale or merger. The struggling Sherman Oaks company retained investment banker Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin to develop strategies that could include a complete or partial sale. Worldwide operates or franchises 22 Pat & Oscar's restaurants, 306 Sizzlers in the U.S. and Australia and 112 franchised KFC units, mostly in Australia.

Los Angeles-based investment banking firm Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin has sold its Mergerstat Holdings business, which tracks merger-and-acquisition activity in the U.S. and Europe, to FactSet Research Systems Inc. of Greenwich, Conn., the companies said Thursday. Terms weren't disclosed. Mergerstat, which Houlihan Lokey said has grown substantially since the firm bought it from Merrill Lynch & Co.

Los Angeles-based Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin is expected to announce Tuesday that it has bought a 50% stake in an affiliate of a leading South Korean financial firm and is forming a new company there. The move echoes those already taken by some of Wall Street's largest financial firms, all of which are attempting to take advantage of opportunities in the distressed Asian marketplace.