Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., a Stifel Company, is an investment banking firm headquartered in New York City, specializing exclusively in the financial services sector. KBW's primary business lines include research, corporate finance, equity sales and trading, equity capital markets, debt capital markets, and asset management. The firm provides a broad range of services to corporate clients such as banking companies, insurance companies, real estate and REITs, broker-dealers, mortgage banks, asset management companies, and specialty finance firms as well as to the institutional investor community. KBW's research analysts cover more than 600 companies in the financial services industry globally.

The company, which was founded in 1962, currently has nine offices in the United States as well as an office in London. In 2013, KBW was acquired by Stifel Financial, a financial services holding Company, for $575 million.[2] KBW has advised on 65 percent of all bank M&A since 2017.[3]

History

The firm was founded in 1962 by Harry Keefe Jr., Gene Bruyette and Norbert Woods. The three founders previously had worked together at

Impact of September 11, 2001

The company's prior New York headquarters was located on the 88th and 89th floors of the World Trade Center's South tower at the time of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which completely destroyed the building. Out of the firm's 172 New York employees, 67 died as a result of the attack when the building was struck by a commercial airline, caught fire and then collapsed.[14] Among the employees killed in the attack were the firm's co-CEO Joseph Berry, CFO Jeffrey Fox, as well as several notable research analysts Christopher W. Murphy, David Berry, Dean Eberling and Thomas Theurkauf.[15]

The firm has held an annual 9/11 memorial service and also maintains a charitable fund it set up to help victims' families.[15]

On July 25, 2018, the New York City medical examiner announced that the remains of another employee killed in the attack, 26-year-old Scott Michael Johnson, had been identified using methods of DNA analysis that were not available in 2001. Johnson worked as a securities analyst for the company.[16]

European expansion

In the late 1990s the firm began considering a move into Europe on the back of resurgent demand for specialist equity research and brokerage houses. The firm held abortive merger talks with London-based boutique investment bank Fox-Pitt, Kelton in 1998, and had been engaged in discussions with BNP about a possible acquisition in early 2001.[15] The strategic expansion was postponed in late 2001 as the firm dealt with the fallout from the September 11 attacks.

In November 2004, KBW announced it would be investing $20 million into Europe with the intention of replicating its North American success by offering specialist research on 110 European financial stocks by 2005.[17]

The European subsidiary Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Limited was incorporated in London and by December 2004 the team had grown to 34.[18] Vasco Moreno was named as chief executive officer and director of European research, moving from rival European boutique Fox, Pitt Kelton

Initial Public Offering

In 2005, KBW was the eighth largest trader of Nasdaq-100 financial stocks—greater than Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns, despite having only 430 employees.[22] For 2004 and 2005 the firm's investment bank was the No.1 ranked financial services M&A advisor and IPO manager globally, having advised on deals totalling $39 billion in 2005. The firm also ranked No.1 in five of their seven specialist research categories in a survey by Institutional Investor in December 2005.[23]

On the back of this success, KBW completed a $143 million initial public offering of stock, floating 6.8 million shares on 9 November 2006.[24] The firm was traded on the NYSE under the ticker 'KBW'.[25]

Asian expansion

Following the success of the firm's foray into Europe in 2004, KBW announced in May 2010 it would be opening offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo offering research, sales & trading, and capital markets advisory to institutional clients in the Asia-Pacific region. The new equity research business targeted an additional 91 Asian financial services companies, making KBW's global research platform of 600 companies in 33 countries the largest specialist financial services research franchise.[27]

Bik San Leung was named as chief operating officer for KBW's Asian franchise, supervising 16 initial hires in Hong Kong and 4 in Tokyo.[28] As in Europe, much of the firm's senior staff had been hired from Fox-Pitt, Kelton's Asian business.[29] Thomas Michaud and Vasco Moreno were also appointed as Non-Executive Directors to oversee the development of the franchise.[28]

Merger with Stifel

On 5 November 2012, Stifel Financial announced they would be acquiring KBW in its entirety for $575 million. KBW was the third bank to merge with Stifel since 2010 as part of Stifel's efforts to become the pre-eminent middle-market investment bank. The merger was completed on 15 February 2013. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods retained its own identity as a specialist in financial services operating under the Stifel umbrella, and Thomas Michaud retained his role as chief executive officer of KBW and was made a member of Stifel's Institutional Group Management Committee.

type	Subsidiary
foundation	1962
location	AXA Equitable Center New York, New York, United States
key people	Thomas B. Michaud (President & CEO) Peter J. Wirth (Global Head of Investment Banking) Matt Kelley (Global Director of Research)
num employees	585 (2010)‡R1R‡
parent	Stifel Financial
industry	Investment banking
revenue	▲ $425.9 million (2010)
net income	▲ $26.6 million (2010)
assets	▲ $699.7 million (2010)
homepage	http://www.kbw.com

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

History

Impact of September 11, 2001

European expansion

Initial Public Offering

Asian expansion

Merger with Stifel

Business overview

Investment banking

Sales and trading

Research

Public finance

Equity capital markets

See also

External links

References