Advisor Group to acquire Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services for $1.3bn

Advisor Group acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann : Advisor Group, a US wealth management company, has agreed to acquire Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, a publicly-traded diversified financial services company, for around $1.3 billion.

According to the terms of the transaction, Advisor Group will buy each of the shares of Ladenburg Thalmann for $3.50 in cash, which includes the assumption of the latter’s outstanding debt.

Based in Miami, Florida, Ladenburg Thalmann offers financial services through its subsidiaries.

In the advisory and brokerage field, the company’s subsidiaries are Securities America, Triad Advisors, Securities Service Network, Investacorp, KMS Financial Services, and Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Premier Trust, and Highland Capital Brokerage, a life insurance brokerage company and annuity processing and marketing company.

Ladenburg Thalmann also owns an investment bank called Ladenburg Thalmann & Co.

Advisor Group acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann. Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay.

The Arizona-based Advisor Group comprises four wealth management companies – FSC Securities, Royal Alliance Associates, SagePoint Financial, and Woodbury Financial Services. Put together the wealth management firms have more than 7000 advisors and over $450 billion in client assets.

Advisor Group said that the merger with Ladenburg Thalmann will bring together highly complementary capabilities and talent to bring in improvements in technology, service, and practice management for advisors across the two companies.

Commenting on Advisor Group acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann, Jamie Price -Advisor Group President and CEO said: “This acquisition brings together the best of two industry leaders, to the benefit of the financial advisors we collectively serve.

“We believe that the investments necessary for competitively differentiated technology, practice management, products and service excellence require a greater level of scale than either of our companies can achieve on a stand-alone basis.”

Once the transaction is completed, the expanded Advisor Group will be led by Jamie Price and the leadership team will include senior executives from both the firms. Ladenburg’s firms will not be merged with Advisor Group’s companies in order to sustain a multi-brand network model.

Richard Lampen – Ladenburg Thalmann Chairman, President and CEO, commenting on Advisor Group acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann, said: “Advisor Group’s CEO, Jamie Price, and his management team offer a mature shared services model and a demonstrated ability to innovate and invest in ways that help advisors grow.

“We are confident this transaction will help our advisors accelerate the growth of their businesses, while enabling them to benefit from the highly personalized service experience they have always enjoyed, under a very similar multi-custodial, multi-clearing and multi-brand structure.”

Advisor Group acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann is expected to close in the first half of 2020 after it gets approval from the latter’s shareholders, and receipt of required regulatory clearances and approvals, and other customary closing conditions.