GunnAllen buying Florida indie Pointe Capital Inc.

As it grapples with major changes, GunnAllen Holdings Inc. has bought an independent broker-dealer. GunnAllen Holdings, the parent of independent broker-dealer GunnAllen Financial Inc. of Tampa, Fla., is set to acquire Pointe Capital Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., the firm announced yesterday. Pointe has about 100 retail and institutional brokers and advisers in 13 branches across the country. Upon the deal’s completion, which is subject to approval by regulators and is expected by the end of June, GunnAllen will have 720 affiliated reps. The company intends to run Pointe as a separate broker-dealer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. GunnAllen has experienced a number of major events over the past 10 months, the most significant of which was the death of its chief executive, Gordon Loetz, in a March boating accident. John Sykes, who bought GunnAllen last year, stepped into the role of CEO in April. The firm changed clearing platforms in January, switching to Ridge Clearing and Outsourcing Solutions Inc. of Jersey City, N.J., from Pershing LLC, also in Jersey City. The firm also cut ties recently with Rick Frueh, its former CEO and one of its founders who sold to Mr. Sykes, and Brad Fay, the chief architect of its recruiting program that, for a time, made GunnAllen Financial one of the fastest growing independent broker-dealers in the industry. Mr. Fay is now working with Newbridge Securities Corp. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “It’s been a pretty active past five months,” said Scott Bendert, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the holding company and chairman of the broker-dealer. And the upcoming months could also be busy, he said, with more deals potentially in the works. “I think we will be more opportunistic in that regard,” he said.