Stifel Financial Corp. is a Delaware corporation and a financial holding company
headquartered in St. Louis. We were organized in 1983. Our principal subsidiary
is Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated (“Stifel”), a full-service
retail and institutional wealth management and investment banking firm. Stifel
is the successor to a partnership founded in 1890. Our other subsidiaries include
Century Securities Associates, Inc. (“CSA”), an independent contractor
broker-dealer firm; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. (“KBW”), Miller
Buckfire & Co. LLC (“Miller Buckfire”), Sterne Agee Group, Inc.
and broker-dealer firms; Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (“SNEL”),
our European subsidiary; Stifel Bank & Trust (“Stifel Bank”),
a retail and commercial bank; 1919 Investment Counsel & Trust Company, National
Association (“1919 Investment Counsel”) and Stifel Trust Company
Delaware, N.A. (“Stifel Trust”), our trust companies; and 1919 Investment
Counsel, LLC (“1919”) and Ziegler Capital Management, LLC (“ZCM”),
asset management firms.
With a 125-year operating history, we have built a diversified business serving
private clients, institutional investors, and investment banking clients located
across the country. Our principal activities are:
Private client services, including securities transaction and financial planning
services;
Institutional equity and fixed income sales, trading and research, and municipal
finance;
Investment banking services, including mergers and acquisitions, public offerings,
and private placements; and
Retail and commercial banking, including personal and commercial lending programs.
Our core philosophy is based upon a tradition of trust, understanding, and studied
advice. We attract and retain experienced professionals by fostering a culture
of entrepreneurial, long-term thinking. We provide our private, institutional,
and corporate clients quality, personalized service, with the theory that if
we place clients’ needs first, both our clients and our company will prosper.
Our unwavering client and employee focus have earned us a reputation as one
of the nation’s leading wealth management and investment banking firms.
We have grown our business both organically and through opportunistic acquisitions.
Over the past several years, we have grown substantially, primarily by completing
and successfully integrating a number of acquisitions, including our acquisition
of the capital markets business of Legg Mason (“LM Capital Markets”)
from Citigroup in December 2005 and the following acquisitions:
Ryan Beck Holdings, Inc. (“Ryan Beck”) and its wholly owned broker-dealer
subsidiary, Ryan Beck & Company, Inc. – On February 28, 2007, we closed
on the acquisition of Ryan Beck, a full-service brokerage and investment banking
firm with a strong private client focus, from BankAtlantic Bancorp, Inc.
First Service Financial Company (“First Service”) and its wholly
owned subsidiary, FirstService Bank – On April 2, 2007, we completed our
acquisition of First Service, and its wholly owned subsidiary FirstService Bank,
a St. Louis-based Missouri commercial bank. Upon consummation of the acquisition,
we became a bank holding company and a financial holding company, subject to
the supervision and regulation of The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System. First Service now operates as Stifel Bank & Trust.
Butler, Wick & Co., Inc. (“Butler Wick”) – On December
31, 2008, we closed on the acquisition of Butler Wick, a privately held broker-dealer
which specialized in providing financial advice to individuals, municipalities,
and corporate clients.
UBS Financial Services Inc. (“UBS”) – During the third and
fourth quarters of 2009, we acquired 56 branches from the UBS Wealth Management
Americas branch network.
Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (“TWPG”) – On July 1, 2010,
we acquired TWPG, an investment bank focused principally on the growth sectors
of the economy, including technology and health care. This acquisition expanded
our investment banking presence on the west coast of the United States.
Stone & Youngberg LLC (“Stone & Youngberg”) – On October
1, 2011, we acquired Stone & Youngberg, a leading financial services firm
specializing in municipal finance and fixed income securities. Stone & Youngberg’s
comprehensive institutional group expanded our public finance, institutional
sales and trading, and bond underwriting, particularly in the Arizona and California
markets, and expanded our Private Client Group.
Miller Buckfire – On December 20, 2012, we acquired Miller Buckfire, an
investment banking firm. Miller Buckfire provides a full range of investment
banking advisory services, including financial restructuring, mergers and acquisitions,
and debt and equity placements.
KBW – On February 15, 2013, we acquired KBW, an investment banking firm
with a focus in the banking, insurance, brokerage, asset management, mortgage
banking, real estate, and specialty finance sectors. KBW maintains industry-leading
positions in research, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, as well
as sales and trading in equities and debt securities of financial services companies.
Fixed Income Sales and Trading Business from Knight Capital – On July
1, 2013, we completed the acquisition of the U.S. institutional fixed income
sales and trading business and the hiring of the European institutional fixed
income sales and trading team from Knight Capital Group, Inc. The combined teams
of sales and trading professionals in the U.S. and Europe cover high-yield and
investment-grade corporate bonds, asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities,
loan trading, and emerging markets, as well as fixed income research in selected
sectors and companies.
Acacia Federal Savings Bank (“Acacia Federal”) – On October
31, 2013, Stifel Bank completed its acquisition of Acacia Federal Savings Bank,
a federally chartered savings institution.
ZCM – On November 30, 2013, we acquired ZCM, an asset management firm
that provides investment solutions for institutions, mutual fund sub-advisory
clients, municipalities, pension plans, Taft-Hartley plans, and individual investors.
De La Rosa – On April 3, 2014, we acquired De La Rosa, a California-based
public finance investment banking boutique. The addition of the De La Rosa team
is expected to further strengthen our company’s position in a number of
key underwriting markets in California.
Oriel – On July 31, 2014, we completed the acquisition of Oriel, a London-based
stockbroking and investment banking firm. The combination of our company and
Oriel has created a significant middle-market investment banking group in London,
with broad research coverage across most sectors of the economy, equity and
debt sales and trading, and investment banking services.
1919 Investment Counsel, formerly known as Legg Mason Investment Counsel &
Trust Co., National Association – On November 7, 2014, we completed the
acquisition of 1919 Investment Counsel, an asset management firm and trust company
that provides customized investment advisory and trust services, on a discretionary
basis, to individuals, families, and institutions throughout the country.
Merchant – On December 31, 2014, we acquired Merchant, a public finance
investment banking firm headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, which serves the
Southeastern market. The strategic combination of Stifel and Merchant Capital
is expected to further strengthen our company’s position in several key
underwriting markets in the Southeast.
Sterne Agee Group, Inc. – On June 5, 2015, we completed the purchase of
all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Sterne Agee Group, Inc. (“Sterne
Agee”), a financial service firm that offers comprehensive wealth management
and investment service to a diverse client base including corporations, municipalities
and individual investors.
Barclays’ Wealth and Investment Management – On December 4, 2015,
we completed the purchase of the Barclays’ Wealth and Investment Management
(“Barclays”), Americas franchise in the U.S.
We have developed a business continuity plan that is designed to permit continued
operation of business-critical functions in the event of disruptions to our
St. Louis, Missouri headquarters facility. Several critical business applications
are supported by our outside vendors who maintain backup capabilities. We periodically
participate in testing these backup facilities. Likewise, the business functions
that we run internally can be supported without the St. Louis headquarters through
a combination of redundant computer facilities in other east and west coast
data centers and from certain branch locations that can connect to our third-party
securities processing vendor through its primary or redundant facilities. Systems
have been designed so that we can route mission-critical processing activity
to alternate locations, which can be staffed with relocated personnel as appropriate.
We believe our strategy for growth will allow us to increase our revenues and
to expand our role with clients as a valued partner. In executing our growth
strategy, we take advantage of the consolidation among mid-tier firms, which
we believe provides us opportunities in our global wealth and institutional
group segments. We do not create specific growth or business plans for any particular
type of acquisition, focus on specific firms, or geographic expansion, nor do
we establish quantitative goals, such as intended numbers of new hires or new
office openings; however, our corporate philosophy has always been to be in
a position to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, while maintaining
sufficient levels of capital. We intend to pursue the following strategies with
discipline:
Further expand our institutional business both domestically and internationally.
Our institutional equity business is built upon the premise that high-quality
fundamental research is not a commodity. The growth of our business over the
last 10 years has been fueled by the effective partnership of our highly rated
research and institutional sales and trading teams. We have identified opportunities
to expand our research capabilities by taking advantage of market disruptions.
Grow our investment banking business. By leveraging our industry expertise,
our product knowledge, our research platform, our experienced associates, our
capital markets strength, our middle-market focus, and our private client network,
we intend to grow our investment banking business. The merger with TWPG in 2010,
our acquisition of Miller Buckfire in 2012, the merger with KBW in 2013, and
the acquisitions of De La Rosa and Oriel in 2014, has accelerated the growth
of our investment banking business through expanded industry, product, and geographic
coverage, including capital-raising for start-up companies, particularly from
the venture community. We believe our position as a middle-market focused investment
bank with broad-based and respected research will allow us to take advantage
of opportunities in the middle market and continue to align our investment banking
coverage with our research footprint.
Focus on asset generation within Stifel Bank and offer retail and commercial
banking services to our clients. We believe the banking services provided through
Stifel Bank strengthens our existing client relationships and helps us recruit
financial advisors
seeking to provide a full range of services to their private clients. We intend
to increase the sale of banking products and services to our private and corporate
clients.
Establishment of Stifel Trust During 2011, we received approval from the Office
of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) to form a trust company.
Stifel Trust provides a wide range of trust, investment, agency, and custodial
services for our individual and corporate clients. We intend to expand our offering
of trust services to our private client group clients. We have expanded our
trust capabilities with the acquisition of 1919 Investment Counsel during 2014
and Barclays’ Wealth Trust in 2015. These businesses have been merged
and operate as Stifel Trust.
Approach acquisition opportunities with discipline. Over the course of our operating
history, we have demonstrated our ability to identify, effect, and integrate
attractive acquisition opportunities. We believe the current environment and
market dislocation will continue to provide us with the ability to thoughtfully
consider acquisitions on an opportunistic basis.
