OREANDA-NEWS. BB&T Capital Markets today announced expanded capabilities to better serve the broader needs of the REITs and commercial real estate sectors. Beyond a well-established national corporate banking team dedicated to the space, BB&T has added resources to further strengthen its investment banking group, as well as dedicated equity research and sales and trading capabilities.

"We are fully committed to serving the needs of this important market segment for BB&T," said Rufus Yates, president and CEO of BB&T Securities. This collective team delivers a wealth of industry knowledge and we are confident the real estate market will respond favorably."

David Toti, managing director, is senior equity research analyst covering REITs. Toti has extensive experience building institutional and corporate relationships and was awarded the 2015 StarMine "Top Stock Picker" award for U.S. REITs. He is based in New York City.

Evan Smith, vice president, has joined the equity research team and will cover REITs under Toti.

G. Berkeley Edmunds, managing director, has joined the team as a senior sales trader focusing on REITs to further strengthen BB&T's institutional distribution capabilities. Edmunds has 20 years of trading experience developing deep industry relationships with most of the largest institutional accounts trading REIT stocks.

David Wojdyla, managing director, was recently promoted to head of real estate investment banking based in Richmond, Va. Since 2012, Wojdyla's team has completed more than 130 debt and equity REIT transactions totaling $50 billion.

BB&T also offers a broad range of capabilities to support this important market segment. In addition to dedicated corporate banking, investment banking, equity research and sales & trading through BB&T Capital Markets, McGriff, Seibels & Williams offers specific real estate industry expertise as a leading full service commercial insurance brokerage serving public, private and uniquely structured real estate companies. From a financing perspective, Grandbridge Real Estate Capital is a national full-service provider of commercial and multifamily finance. Both are subsidiaries of BB&T.

"As a full service platform, we now offer our real estate clients access to the broadest markets, as well as the balance sheet strength of one of the nation's strongest financial institutions," said John Jung, senior managing director and head of BB&T Capital Markets. "We will continue to add resources and top professionals who possess the work ethic, integrity and sense of leadership we value as a firm."