Fifth Third Bancorp announced that Fifth Third Securities, Inc. (Fifth Third Securities) has agreed to bring Challenger Capital Group’s team of M&A professionals to Fifth Third Securities. The team, headed by Mike Burr, has a strong track record of success in advising middle market companies on a wide range of strategic transactions including M&A, and accessing the capital markets.

As employees of the Capital Markets division of Fifth Third Securities, Burr and his team will provide capital markets and M&A advisory services to clients. The agreement was finalized after a two year period during which Fifth Third Securities solely referred M&A and strategic advisory clients to Challenger Capital Group.

“The addition of Mike Burr and his talented team is a major step forward for our M&A business,” said Bob Marcus, Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets. “Mike and his team will be instrumental in the execution of our strategy to bring unique and differentiated capital markets advice and execution capabilities to our middle market clients and prospects.”

Burr and his team bring experience in a wide range of industries including: consumer products, energy, entertainment, food service, healthcare, industrial products, media, natural gas, oilfield service, publishing, retail, and telecom sectors.

“The Challenger team is excited to join Fifth Third’s Capital Markets Group. The opportunity to formally align our M&A and capital raising capabilities, with an organization committed to delivering client-based corporate finance solutions is very compelling,” said Mike Burr, President of Challenger Capital. “We’ve had the opportunity to partner with Bob and his team of bankers during the last two years. This step is reflective of our confidence in the strategic capabilities that Fifth Third Securities is building.”

Fifth Third Securities is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp and offers full service retail brokerage services to individual clients and broker dealer services to the institutional marketplace. The Capital Markets division provides full-service investment banking, debt underwriting, and capital markets capabilities to clients of Fifth Third Securities and its affiliates.