Stifel Financial To Buy Privately-held Brokerage Firm Sterne Agee

(RTTNews) - Financial services holding company Stifel Financial Corp. (SF) agreed Tuesday to acquire privately-held brokerage firm Sterne Agee Group, Inc. for $150 million in a cash and stock deal that will boost its wealth-management segment as it continues to build its broker business.

"We have identified a great firm in Sterne Agee to bolster our Global Wealth Management group with the addition of more than 700 financial advisors and independent representatives increasing advisor professionals by 35%," Stifel Chairman and CEO Ronald Kruszewski said in a statement.

The consideration will consist of a combination of Stifel common stock, valued at $51.55 per share, and cash. Sterne shareholder can elect for a minimum of 1.42 million shares of Stifel stock and a maximum of 1.62 million shares, while the cash consideration ranging between about $77 million and $66 million.

The deal, primarily subject to approval by Sterne Agee shareholders, is expected to close in the late spring. The deal has the unanimous approval of the boards of directors of both companies.

The deal will boost Stifel's global wealth management segment with the addition of about 730 financial advisors and independent representatives nationwide managing over $20 billion in client assets, and complements Stifel's fixed income platform.

"Sterne Agee's fixed income platform is highly complementary to our existing products and services, and together will catapult this business to a new level, continuing the momentum we established with the addition of Knight's fixed income sales and trading business," Kruszewski added.

Agee Group is one of the oldest and largest privately owned financial services firms in the U.S. Stifel said the acquired businesses are expected to generate gross annual revenues of about $300 to $325 million and be accretive to shareholder value when fully integrated.

In Tuesday's regular trading session, SF is currently trading at $55.21, up $3.12 or 5.99% on a volume of 0.41 million shares after hitting a 52-week high of $55.34.