Blog

BB&T to acquire Crump Group insurance units

Posted by RJ & Makay on February 6, 2012

BB&T Corp. is acquiring the property/casualty and life insurance units of Crump Group, BB&T announced last Friday.  The regional bank will pay $570 million in cash for the units, and will also acquire rights to the Crump name.  The acquisition will not include Ascensus, Crump’s retirement ...

ascensus, bbt, crump-group, john-howard, life-insurance, mergers-and-acquisitions, property-and-casualty-insurance, wade-reece

Wells Fargo wealth management down

Posted by RJ & Makay on January 19, 2012

The wealth management unit of Wells Fargo & Company reported weaker than expected fourth quarter 2011 results Monday. The firm attributed the tepid quarter to volatile investment markets and reduced client activity.  Client assets within Wells Fargo Advisors declined 3% from Q4 2010 to $1.13 trillion, the company said.  Fee-based ...

capital-markets, commodities, fee-based-income, hs-vest-financial-services, initial-public-offerings, market-volatility, mergers-and-acquisitions, wells-fargo, wells-fargo-advisors

Morgan Keegan advisors compare Raymond James to other recruiting options

Posted by RJ & Makay on January 17, 2012

Raymond James Financial Inc. announced yesterday that it would acquire Morgan Keegan brokerage from Regions Financial Corp. for $930 million.  As part of the deal, Morgan Keegan will pay a $250 million divided to Regions, bringing the total transaction to $1.8 billion.  The acquisition will create one of the ...

darin-manis, investment-banking, mergers-and-acquisitions, morgan-keegan, raymond-james-financial, regions-financial-corp, rj-makay, wealth-management

Larger retention pool down the drain

Posted by RJ & Makay on January 13, 2012

During the bidding war for Morgan Keegan between Raymond James and Stifel Financial, Stifel’s potential offer to buy the brokerage would have contained a much larger retention payment pool for Morgan Keegan employees, an inside source said Thursday.  Raymond James executives noted that Morgan Keegan already had a $200 ...

broker-retention-pools, mergers-and-acquisitions, morgan-keegan, raymond-james, stifel-financial

Insurance executives sour on business outlook

Posted by RJ & Makay on November 11, 2011

Many U.S. insurance industry executives believe that business conditions in the sector have deteriorated compared to a year ago.  Faced with ongoing economic weakness and a stiffer regulatory environment, executives remain guarded about company performance and the industry’s ability to generate underwriting profit, according to a recent annual ...

insurance-business-conditions, insurance-industry, kpmg-insurance-industry-conference, mergers-and-acquisitions, regulatory-reform

RJ & Makay recruits Peak Capital from LPL to United Capital

Posted by RJ & Makay on November 9, 2011

United Capital Financial Partners Inc. announced last week that it has purchased Peak Capital Investment Services, for an undisclosed sum, to expand its national wealth advisory services.  Peak, which has offices in Dallas and Denver, has about $600 million in assets under management, which will add to United Capital’s ...

brandon-ross, david-peterson, jason-del-col, jason-kirkland, joe-duran, jonathan-blumenthal, mergers-and-acquisitions, peak-capital-investment, retirement-planning, rj-makay, tim-harder, united-capital-financial-advisors, united-capital-financial-partners, wealth-management

Allied World and Transatlantic nix merger

Posted by RJ & Makay on September 16, 2011

Allied World Assurance Co. Holdings and Transatlantic Holdings, Inc. called off their merger today in the face of overwhelming opposition, and Transatlantic said it might remain independent despite two higher offers currently on the table.  Shareholders were to vote on the Allied deal next Tuesday, but it was anticipated that ...

allied-world-assurance, berkshire-hathaway, mergers-and-acquisitions, reinsurance, transatlantic-holdings, validus-holdings

Ameriprise posts strong second quarter earnings

Posted by RJ & Makay on July 29, 2011

Ameriprise Financial, Inc. reported higher second-quarter profits Wednesday and said the planned sale of its Securities America unit is ”progressing as anticipated.” Ameriprise’s Q2 results excluded Securities America, which it now counts as discontinued operations for that quarter and all prior periods, the firm said.

Ameriprise’s net income ...

ameriprise-financial, jim-cracchiolo, jim-nagengast, mergers-and-acquisitions, securities-america, wealth-management

Strong M&A activity in first half of 2011

Posted by RJ & Makay on June 13, 2011

Merger and acquisition value increased 39% in the first half of 2011, continuing the trend of strong M&A activity in 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Large deals drove much of the increase with corporations accounting for 82% of deal volume and 84% of deal value from a total of 1046 ...

diversity-holdings, hilcorp-energy, hilcorp-resources, kohlberg-kravis-roberts-company, ma-activity, marathon-oil, martyn-curragh, mergers-and-acquisitions, pricewaterhousecoopers, private-equity, sealed-air, standard-and-poors, tim-hartnett

Morgan Stanley: Dominant IPO and M&A player

Posted by RJ & Makay on June 3, 2011

Morgan Stanley has won out over Goldman Sachs as lead underwriter for the Groupon IPO, continuing a banner year for the firm and coming on the heals of the LinkedIn IPO it led two weeks ago.

“Morgan Stanley is quickly becoming the underwriter of choice for the wave of hot ...

advisory-revenue, brett-philbin, citigroup, commodities, currencies, fixed-income, goldman-sachs, groupon, ipos, jp-morgan, linkedin, mergers-and-acquisitions, morgan-stanley, pandora-media, ruth-porat