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Gene Winter
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Corporate Growth - Richmond Chapter
Read the Greater Richmond Partnership's other newsletters:
Catalyst: tracking innovation in Richmond, VA's advanced materials/specialty chemicals sector
BioSynthesis: tracking innovation in Richmond, VA's life sciences sector
Logistics: tracking innovation in Richmond, VA's supply chain sector
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Wachovia Securities is the third largest brokerage firm in the United States -- the largest outside of New York. Its location in Richmond, Va., has been a strong competitive advantage.
by Peter Galuszka
Richmond’s Riverfront Plaza, with its views of the James River’s burbling, tree-lined rapids, is far removed from the canyons of Manhattan and such investment powerhouses as Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney. Yet decisions made inside Richmond's twin, 20-story buildings are as likely to move the United States financial markets as those at the country's top two brokerage houses.
For two years now, Wachovia Securities, formed by the merger of Wachovia Securities and New York’s Prudential Securities, has operated the nation’s third-largest brokerage from the banks of the James. The merger, which will add a total of 1,200 new jobs to Richmond when it's complete, exemplifies the city’s revival as a regional financial center after the loss of several major banking headquarters in the 1990s.
in a place like Richmond,” says Daniel J. Ludeman, the president and chief executive officer of Wachovia Securities, 62 percent of which is owned by Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. and 38 percent by Prudential Financial. The answer is clear: Just fine. Wachovia is proof that the brokerage business can prosper outside of New York.
“I talked about a new paradigm of a firm that didn’t exist in the marketplace,” Ludeman says: a brokerage firm that keeps a low profile and sticks to its knitting, selling clients financial products from stocks and retirement plans to annuities and hedge funds. Executives in the Big Apple might mug for the covers of the national business publications but Ludeman, a low-key product of Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary's graduate business school, says, "Actions speak louder than words.” More.
Building
Bonds
Ken
Powell and Nate Betnun pioneered tax-district financing in
the
Stone and Youngberg, a San Francisco public-finance banking firm, wasn’t thinking about a major expansion of its nominal East Coast presence when Richmonder Ken Powell cold-called CEO Kenneth Williams this summer. The idea wasn’t even on the radar screen.
powerhouse in the municipal market, happens to dominate a particularly arcane niche in public finance: packaging and
But Powell and his partner, Nate Betnun, both former public-finance bankers with Legg Mason, had broken open the market in Virginia and Maryland, and they were making inroads into nearby states. Their deal flow was only a small fraction of Stone & Youngberg’s business, but they brought to the firm ties to local development communities, the skills and know-how to pioneer the new financing tool in new markets, and a passionate conviction that special tax district financing was the wave of the future. More.
- sponsored content -
Biometrics firm gets funding
Keychain maker's investors include a local venture-capital company
By Jeffrey Kelley Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
Barry W. Johnson has undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering.
As of this week, he also has $15.7 million to help launch his biometrics security company. Charlottesville-based Privaris Inc. said yesterday that it has secured early-stage funding to expand sales and marketing operations. The financing round was led by Richmond-based Harbert Venture Partners.
"Typically you can see a $15 million round as a later-stage round, but we think the company has tremendous potential," said Wayne Hunter, managing partner at Harbert, which provides money to early-stage technology and health-care companies in the region. More.
This article reprinted with permission from the Richmond Times-Dispatch. |
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M&A
Capital One Financial has completed its acquisition of Hibernia Corporation, a New Orleans bank holding company, in a $4.9 billion transaction. Said CEO Richard D. Fairbank: "The combination of Capital One and Hibernia brings together the strengths of national scale consumer lending and local scale banking." (Nov. 14, 2005) More. BB&T Corporation has acquired Bergen Capital Inc., a New Jersey brokerage and investment banking firm, and will fold it into its Scott & Stringfellow subsidiary. (Nov. 14, 2005) More. Business Markel Corporation has announced plans to create a new operating unit, Markel Global Marine & Energy, which will specialize in marine and energy coverages worldwide. Steve Cullen, formerly of XL Insurance, will assume oversight for Markel's existing marine and energy operations in London and Richmond, with plans to build a new marine and energy team in the United States. (Oct. 21, 2005) More. Genworth Financial, Inc. will participate in the mortgage guarantee program of Mexico's Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal through a risk sharing agreement. Said Genworth executive Brian Hurley: "Mexico's housing and mortgage markets are poised for growth in both scale and products, and our mortgage guaranty program can play an important role in the development of both." More. (Nov. 1, 2005). More. Genworth Financial, Inc., has added more than 500 registered representatives to its Genworth Financial Investment Services unit through a transaction with C.J.M. Planning Corp., of New Jersey. Said Genworth executive Pam Schutz: "The addition of this group increases our representative base by 25 percent, to a total of more than 2,400, and significantly expands our reach." (Oct. 25, 2005) More. Markel Corporation has estimated that its after-tax losses from Hurricane Katrina will range between $125 million to $150 million. (Sept. 27, 2005) More. People Donald H. Newlin has been named chairman of Anderson & Strudwick Invest- ment Corporation. Newlin, a senior vice president who has worked for the firm since 1969, replaces L. McCarthy (Mac) Downs III. (Oct. 3, 2005) More. Mark W. Griffin has been named chief investment officer (CIO) of Genworth Financial. He had served as senior vice president and chief risk officer since June 2005. (Oct. 12, 2005). More. Michael Crowley, has been appointed president of Hilb Rogal & Hobbs. (Sept. 29, 2005) More. Michael Dinkins has taken on the position of CFO, replacing Carolyn Jones, who is retiring. (Sept. 13, 2005). More. Joseph Birriel has been hired from The Martin Agency to assume the position of senior vice president, human resources and corporate branding. (Oct. 19, 2005) More. Steven Markel, vice chairman of Markel Corporation, has made a "significant minority investment" in First Market Bank. Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. will maintain its majority ownership interest in FMB. (Oct. 27, 2005) More. Transactions Saxon Capital has securitized $900 million of notes backed by conforming and non-conforming mortgage loans. (Sept. 27, 2005) More. Anderson & Strudwick's Financial Institutions Group represented Danville-based Community First Financial Corporation in its announced merger with American National Bank in a transaction valued at $33.9 million (Oct. 19, 2005) More. Harris Williams & Co. advised Clean Earth Holdings, Inc., a provider of environmental treatment services based in Hatboro, Pa., in its sale to Littlejohn & Co., LLC. (Oct. 17, 2005) More. Harris Williams & Co. advised Omniflight, Inc., an air medical services company based in Addison, Tex., in its sale to Wind Point Partners. (Nov. 2, 2005). More. Harris Williams & Co. advised Instron Corporation, a Norwood, Mass.-based supplier of instruments for the testing of materials and structures, in its sale to Illinois Tool Works, Inc. (Oct. 11, 2005) More. Harris Williams & Co., advised Seabrook International, LLC, a Seabrook, N.H.-based designer of precision instruments for the orthopedic industry, in its recapitalization by FdG Associates. (Oct. 4, 2005) More.
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