Federated eyes regional B-Ds to boost distribution

Federated Investors Inc. is on a hiring spree as it looks to step up its sales through regional broker-dealers. The asset manager will add 20 sales reps to its 45-person broker-dealer channel in the next 12 months, said Thomas E. Territ, president of Federated Securities Corp., the distribution arm of Federated Investors. The company aims to double sales through that channel in the next four years. Federated already has boosted its mutual fund sales across all of its channels in the past three years or so. Those sales jumped from $10 billion in gross mutual fund sales in 2007 to $22 billion in 2010. During that period of time, fund sales through the broker-dealer channels jumped from $6.4 billion to $12 billion, Mr. Territ said. But Federated's management believes it has great opportunities to expand the company's distribution, particularly through regional broker-dealers, Mr. Territ said. Under Mr. Territ, Federated has merged its independent and wirehouse sales groups, and focused them more on key accounts, he said. “Now I want to further develop and expand into regional firms where we have a good opportunity,” he said. Federated hopes to double sales in the broker-dealer channel over the next four years. The company has spent a lot of time on gaining a better understanding of the numbers of producers at the various regional broker-dealers, as well as understanding what kind of business these producers are doing and what products they are using, Mr. Territ said. “We see a coverage gap where we are feeling confident,” he said. Federated hopes to start hiring Aug. 1. As of March 31, Federated had $73.4 billion in assets in non-money-market mutual funds.