LPL sets date for IPO: Sources

LPL Investment Holdings Inc. will make its market debut Nov. 17, according to sources familiar with the firm's planned initial public offering. LPL, which filed a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, said in the filing that it hopes to raise about $500 million with the offering — less than previously anticipated. When the broker-dealer filed its registration for an IPO in June, LPL said it could raise as much as $600 million. (Read more about the filing and details of the IPO here.) The sources who say LPL will launch its IPO next week declined to speak for attribution. LPL spokeswoman Ruth Pachman said LPL declined to comment because the firm is in its quiet period. With more than 12,000 representatives in its network, LPL is already one of the largest brokerage firms in the country, and the largest independent contractor firm. LPL said last week that it will offer its shares to the public at a price between $27 a share and $30 a share. In 2005, when two private-equity firms acquired a majority stake in LPL, the firm had 6,300 reps and financial advisers. It then went on an acquisition binge and added five broker-dealers, nearly doubling the number of affiliated brokers. And the firm hasn't stopped buying. This summer, LPL said that it was acquiring the assets of National Retirement Partners Inc., which has about 350 reps and advisers affiliated with its broker-dealer, NRP Financial Inc. At the time of the 2005 deal, LPL was valued at about $2.5 billion. Assuming a share price of $30, the current valuation of the firm would be closer to $3.7 billion. LPL's going public has been widely viewed as a seminal event for the independent-contractor broker-dealer industry. Long overlooked and misunderstood by the investment community, independent-contractor broker-dealers see LPL's public listing as a validation of the way their firms do business.