New York-based Jefferies Group Inc. is a midsize investment bank and institutional securities firm focused on growing and midsize companies. It offers capital markets, financial advisory, M&A, restructuring, research, trade execution, asset-management and other services and products.

The company is coming off its best annual performance in its history. The bank's expanded its fixed-income sales and trading business and increased investment-banking activity. It has hired about 300 people in focused areas such as health care in the past year, expanding its fixed-income effort and recently completing its acquisition of First Albany Securities LLC, moving into the municipal securities market. The bank has avoided some of the pain of the financial crisis by focusing on bread-and-butter investment-banking services and keeping its balance sheet largely free of mortgages and structured products. Amid the downturn, it had cut 500 employees, closed offices in Dubai, Singapore and Tokyo, and renewed focus on managing expenses. The bank is expected to continue to expand and strengthen its staff in sectors such as energy, industrials and technology, according to The Wall Street Journal. It recently added a rates trading and sales team in Europe and Asia, mirroring its efforts in the U.S. It may also expand in financial services, the paper says. Jefferies' yearly restructuring party held after the holidays each winter is one of the biggest annual events on the restructuring circuit.