Wunderlich Securities has acquired Dominick & Dominick, a New York-based brokerage firm with a long history on Wall Street.
With the acquisition, Memphis, Tenn.-based Wunderlich will have about 250 advisors in 32 offices managing more than $10 billion in client assets. The deal is expected to be completed in early 2015, according to a statement from Wunderlich. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal is the second big acquisition of the year, following Baird's July acquisition of Seattle-based McAdams Wright Ragen. That move boosted Baird's advisor headcount above 800 and brought 7 offices in the Pacific Northwest. Baird now manages more than $125 billion in assets.
Regional broker-dealers have been pushing to grow their advisor ranks, whether through acquisition like Wunderlich and Baird, or recruitment. Raymond James & Associates has
Wunderlich has been pursuing an expansion strategy since December when the firm received a $40 million capital investment led by Altamont Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based private investment firm, and members of Wunderlich's management team.
"This was the largest acquisition we've ever done and it was made possible by the capital we raised last December," says CEO Gary Wunderlich.
He adds that the firm plans to increase the size of its advisor force to about 500.
"We certainly think we can double the size of our business," says Wunderlich. "But that said we are not going to grow for growth sake. We looked at several firms, but Dominick was the right fit because it fit culturally. There's a huge opportunity to fill a void in the regional firm space. But it's going to be done with the right people."
This acquisition boosts the firm's presence in the New York metropolitan region, raising the number of employees to about 150, and making the area the firm's largest by headcount. Wunderlich says it plans to operate Dominick & Dominick as a division of its private client group, Wunderlich Wealth Management.
Dominick & Dominick was founded in 1870 and currently has offices in New York, Great Neck, N.Y., Miami, Atlanta and Basel, Switzerland. The firm's CEO, Kevin McKay, will become general counsel of Wunderlich Securities. Dominick & Dominick Chairman Michael Campbell will join Wunderlich's board of directors while the firm's COO Robert Reilly will become New York regional manager.
According to Dominick & Dominick's website, the firm originally began as Dominick & Dickerman, a partnership of William Gayer Dominick and Watson Bradley Dickerman. When Dickerman left the firm to become president of the New York Stock exchange, the firm's leadership chose the name Dominick & Dominick to save on letterhead, labeled as D&D at the time.
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