Nuveen LLC created a “zero-tolerance policy’’ for doing business with banks or bond traders who signed deals with rival Preston Hollow Capital LLC, according to unsealed transcripts of calls Nuveen employees made to those financial institutions.
Preston Hollow Capital said audio recordings it got as part of a lawsuit show Nuveen used its market power as one of the biggest buyers of U.S. state and local government bonds to organize a boycott of the Dallas-based lender, whose role in financing risky projects posed a competitive threat.
John Miller, co-head of Nuveen’s fixed income unit, is “going to every single major bank and broker-dealer that we do business with and telling them, ‘If you choose to do business with Preston Hollow, we will not be conducting business with you,” an unidentified Nuveen employee said in an undated transcript.
The documents were made public in Delaware Chancery Court, where Preston Hollow filed a complaint in March accusing Chicago-based Nuveen of running an intimidation campaign to keep the smaller rival from competing with it for debt deals. Nuveen manages more than $140 billion of municipal bonds.
Preston Hollow alleged that Miller and his staff threatened to use their power to pull tens of millions of dollars in business from banks that underwrote limited offerings with Preston Hollow and financed the loans.
Nuveen is accused in the suit of violating antitrust laws by organizing the boycott and pressuring big banks, such as Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. to shun the Texas bond fund. Preston Hollow has loaned $2 billion to finance hospitals, real estate developments and student housing.
‘Distorted View’
“The selected passages from the transcripts, as presented, offer a distorted view of how we engage with broker-dealers on a day-to-day basis and therefore don’t reflect our overall approach to the municipal bond market on behalf of our clients and all investors,” Stewart Lewack, a Nuveen spokesman, said Monday in an emailed statement.
“Nothing about these recordings changes Nuveen’s view of the case,’’ Lewack added. “Nuveen continues to maintain the claims have no merit and will vigorously defend itself.’’
Nuveen, which had almost $1 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, is the investment manager of TIAA, which is known for offering financial products to teachers.