Froley Revy Announces Promotions, Strengthens Convertible Arbitrage Tr

LOS ANGELES, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Froley, Revy Investment Co., Inc., one of the nation's oldest specialty managers of convertible securities, today announced a series of management promotions and appointments to its investment management team.

The announcements include the following: -- Michael Opre, CFA, was promoted to Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager. Opre, who has 13 years of experience, was previously a Vice President and an analyst covering the financial, industrial, and material sectors. Opre holds an MBA in Finance from UCLA and received his designation as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 1999. -- Matthew Weisbarth was been named Senior Arbitrage Trader. Weisbarth, who has seven years of capital markets experience, will expand Froley, Revy's ability to offer arbitrage products to institutional clients. Before joining Froley, Revy, Weisbarth worked at PaineWebber and Exis Capital Management. -- Pavel Sokolov was appointed Research Analyst, with responsibility for the company's technology and materials sectors. Before joining Froley, Revy, Sokolov worked for Odyssey Advisors. He earned an MBA from UCLA and a Ph.D. in engineering from Cleveland State University.

"These appointments deepen and broaden Froley, Revy's investment management capability, and particularly strengthen our arbitrage trading group," said Andrea O'Connell, President and CEO of Froley, Revy. "The Froley, Revy team continues to attract and retain the best and the brightest investment professionals in the industry."

About Froley, Revy

Froley, Revy Investment Co., Inc., a registered investment advisor, was established in 1975. As of December 31, 2004, Froley, Revy had $4.4 billion in assets under management. Froley, Revy provides investment advisory services to public pension funds, corporate pension and profit-sharing plans, insurance companies and Taft-Hartley pension plans. In addition, the firm provides advisory services to broker sponsored managed money programs. Froley, Revy operates independently as a wholly owned subsidiary of First Republic Bank .

About First Republic Bank

First Republic Bank is a NYSE-traded commercial bank and wealth management firm. The Bank specializes in providing personalized, relationship-based wealth management services, including private banking, investment management, trust, brokerage and real estate lending. As of December 31, 2004, the Bank had total banking assets and other assets under management and administration of $24.7 billion. First Republic bank provides its services online and through branch offices in eight major metropolitan areas: San Francisco, the Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Las Vegas and New York City. More information is available on the Bank's Web site at http://www.firstrepublic.com/ .