FBR Names Financial Sponsors Team

FBR Capital Markets has named Phil Facchina as group head of financial sponsors. It also completed the group's senior staffing, by naming Michael Cerretani as senior managing director, Michael McClintock as managing director and Adam Butterworth and Paul Woo as vice presidents.

PRESS RELEASE

FBR Capital Markets Corporation (Nasdaq: FBCM) (FBR Capital Markets) today announced that effective January 1, 2008, Phil Facchina, a Senior Managing Director in the Investment Banking group, has also been named Group Head of Financial Sponsors. The firm also announced the completion of its senior staffing in the Financial Sponsors group, including the appointment of Michael Cerretani as Senior Managing Director, Michael McClintock as Managing Director and Adam Butterworth and Paul Woo as Vice Presidents.

These professionals will complement the existing team of Mario Shaffer, Senior Managing Director; Eric Kahn, Managing Director; Tim Lufkin, Senior Vice President; Albert Lee, Senior Vice President; and Alex Makhotin, Analyst. These changes reflect the increasing involvement of FBCM in transactions backed by private equity funds, venture capital funds and other Financial Sponsors across the public capital markets, 144A private markets as well as Merger & Acquisition transactions and mark a significantly increased commitment by FBCM to this important segment of its business.

“This expansion leverages Mario's success in building the Financial Sponsors coverage team who helped generate nearly one third of our 2007 banking revenues from transactions involving financial sponsors” said James C. Neuhauser, Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Investment Banking.

Mr. Facchina has been a Senior Managing Director and Group Head of Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) in the Investment Banking group for 8 years and has been with FBR for more than 9 years. During his tenure at the firm, Mr. Facchina has originated and executed in excess of 100 transactions leveraging every product that FBR offers in public and private capital markets transactions, including several 144A transactions — a critical component of the FBCM sponsor offerings — and numerous advisory projects on behalf of Financial Sponsors. Mr. Facchina built banking coverage teams in both the TMT and Healthcare industries, and cultivated relationships with the numerous sponsors who participate in those and other industry sectors. He has also collaborated with many sponsors during his involvement with FBR Ventures.

“I look forward to building on the successes we have had with the Financial Sponsors,” said Mr. Facchina. “We will continue to work with both the sponsor and industry coverage teams to develop timely, innovative solutions which leverage all of FBCM's resources for the sponsor community and their portfolio companies.”

Mr. Cerretani, an industry veteran with FBR for almost 19 years and most recently Managing Director and Head of Institutional Sales, has been intimately involved with the distribution of securities across the entire capital markets platform. Since joining FBR in 1990, Mr. Cerretani spent several years as a leading producer in Institutional Sales and was instrumental in the successful completion of numerous capital markets transactions.

Mr. McClintock joins the Financial Sponsors team after many successes as Managing Director and Group Head of Banks & Thrifts in FBR Capital Markets investment banking group. He is a seasoned banker with significant experience in executing sponsor-backed transactions and has been with the firm for more than four years.

“With these changes, we are expanding FBR Capital Markets' creativity and thought leadership in both capital markets and M&A transactions into the sponsor community,” added Richard Hendrix, President and Chief Operating Officer of FBR Capital Markets.

In addition to his new role, Mr. Facchina will remain Senior Managing Director and Group Head of TMT as FBR Capital Markets continues to build out that sector. FBCM expects to announce additional senior staffing within TMT in the near future.

FBR Capital Markets Corporation (FBR Capital Markets), a majority-owned subsidiary of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., provides investment banking*, merger and acquisition advisory services*, institutional brokerage*, research*, asset management and private wealth services. FBR Capital Markets focuses capital and financial expertise on eight industry sectors: consumer, diversified industrials, energy & natural resources, financial institutions, healthcare, insurance, real estate, and technology, media & telecom. FBR Capital Markets is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with offices in Arlington, VA; Boston; Dallas; Houston; Irvine; New York; San Francisco; London, England; and Sydney, Australia. For more information, please visit www.fbrcapitalmarkets.com .