Evercore Partners Inc (NYSE:EVR) Acquires ISI Brokerage for $400m

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By Chris Hillman on August 5, 2014 Financial

Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE:EVR) recently disclosed that it had made a binding agreement with ISI, International Strategy & Investment, to acquire ISI’s business. ISI is one of the leading research and trading agencies. News has it that the company will merge both the businesses and emerge as one leading financial advisory firm. Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE:EVR) will also purchase around 40 percent shares in its institutional equities business.

Rumors have it that the deal will be executed in the last quarter of the year 2014 given that both the companies obtain approvals from the regulatory board and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will issue around 8 million shares, making up almost 70 percent of the share consideration.

ISI was founded in 1991 and it is no doubt one of the best financial advisory firms. The company has 28 well-reputed research analysts who cover the stocks of 345 companies belonging to 10 different business sectors. The company has a total of 226 employees and 7 major office sites in the United States. Moreover, the company has its offices in London as well. ISI’s analysts have been ranked at either #1 or #2 by institutional investors. Coming to the Evercore Partners Inc (NYSE:EVR), the Institutional Equities sector of the company has a total of 19 researchers, who cover the stocks of around 345 companies. The company has three principal offices in the United States with almost 80 employees.

Both the companies will merge their sales, trading operations and research. The founder of ISI, Ed Hyman, who currently holds the chairmanship at ISI, will be the Vice Chairman of the combined company. The combined company will have the executives of both the original companies in its board. News has it that the combined company will cater to the stocks of around 620 companies belonging to 12 different business sectors. The company will further provide coverage of almost 1,750 investors.

The merger will increase not only the number of the employees and researchers but it will also double the revenues of Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE:EVR), as ISI reported revenues of around 200 million for the last fiscal year.

The President of Evercore, Ralph Schlosstein who is also the CEO of the company, said that Evercore is very happy to join hands with the ISI team. He further stated that the deal will result in the creation of one of the best and the biggest equity capital research firms for it brings together the exceptional professionals and researchers of both the firms.

Ralph further said that ISI had remained successful over the last couple of years, even though the market environment was quite challenging. The strengths of ISI and Evercore will give rise to an exceptional company.

Coming to the stock prices of the company, Evercore Partners Inc (NYSE:EVR), during the last trading session, opened its stocks at a price of $52.30 and closed at a price of $49.52, after hitting the highest value of $52.70. The company has a market capitalization of 1.96 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 29.75.