Top 10 hottest trends in the IBD industry
Broker-dealer owners can only pine for the days when the former nontraded real estate investment trust czar Nicholas Schorsch (right) was paying obscene valuations for independent broker-dealers.
RCS Capital Corp., the brokerage holding company Mr. Schorsch formerly controlled, in 2014 paid $1.15 billion for Cetera Financial Group Inc. That bit of deal-making failed to work out. Burdened by debt, RCS Capital is slated to file for bankruptcy protection.
With any number of firms being shopped, a glut has created a buyer's market for IBDs. According to multiple sources, the AIG Advisor Group was on the verge of announcing a new owner at the end of last month.
"There is a higher number of potential opportunities than we have ever seen," Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services CEO Richard Lampen said in November.