(July 11 – 12:10 ET) – According to the Wall Street Letter, Lehman Brothers is about to acquire the retail brokerage business of SG Cowen Securities.
Citing an anonymous source, the WSL says a joint announcement will be made soon. Neither firm is commenting on the rumour.
Several months ago SG Cowen stopped hiring on the retail side, spurring speculation that the firm would soon flee the business. Société Générale, Cowen’s French parent, bought the firm in 1998.
In the United States it operates as an integrated, full-service securities dealer and investment banking firm focused on technology, health care, telecoms, and gaming and lodging. The firm is registered as an international dealer in Canada, maintaining an office in Toronto. It also has 11 offices in the U.S., along with a presence in Geneva, Paris, Tokyo, Zurich and London, housing its 3,300 employees.
SG Cowen’s private client group serves affluent individuals, modest-sized pension funds, registered investment advisors, money managers and mid-sized institutions. But the parent company reportedly wants to dump the business over strategy differences.
For Lehman’s part, it has reportedly decided that to stay competitive in the retail business it is going to have to ramp up its division. “Lehman is going to have to do something as an incentive to keep us,” the WSL quotes an SG Cowen broker as saying.
-IE Staff