GMP Capital Corp. says it doesn’t expect to hire its first retail advisor until the fall.

In a conference call Wednesday, CEO Kevin Sullivan said that the firm’s fledgling private-client division is currently focused on building a technology platform that will allow it to begin hiring advisors by the fall. This spring, it hired James Werry to head up the new division, and it is also currently hiring product development and marketing executives, Sullivan said.

He said that it wants to ensure that the “ground is ready for when investment advisor [No.] One comes over.” Sullivan noted that it’s key that the first few advisors it brings in will have, “a robust experience here in terms of our capability, and we are working very hard to ensure that we are in that position.” The firm is going to be very cautious about its initial hires, he said, to ensure that the first few advisors can hit the ground running.

The firm plans to bring on board 100 high net worth-focused advisors over the next five years, although Sullivan said that it doesn’t have interim hiring targets. Sullivan stressed that the firm is looking for the “right type” of advisor, rather than the right number of them. He said that it will be attempting to replicate GMP’s entrepreneurial culture on the retail side, and will seek advisors that are eager to be owners (through GMP stock).

Focussing on hand-selecting the right advisors, rather than in filling the seats, could cause the firm to stray from its discipline in building a retail arm in the cultural image of its institutional business. “I’m not in a position to tell you that at fiscal year end we’ll have five brokers, or 20 brokers, or 40 brokers. I hope that I’ll be able to tell you that we have X number of the right brokers.”

Sullivan refused to speculate on the sort of incentives that it will offer advisors to lure them to the firm, although he noted that equity will be the big draw. “We want people to think like owners and act like owners,” he said, noting that equity ownership is critical to its retail growth strategy.

The firm’s other main strategic plan is to enter the merchant banking business. It aims to do this on much the same terms that it is seeking to build a retail business, by seeking professionals who fit with GMP’s culture. Sullivan says that he sees this as a possible opportunity that is under ongoing investigation; he characterized its efforts in this area as “exploratory”, noting that it doesn’t feel that it has to be in this business tomorrow, or in six months, and it will patiently seek the right opportunity.

As for its existing business lines, Sullivan indicated that the M&A deal pipeline looks pretty strong for the second quarter (including its position as advisor to Wheaton River Minerals in the gold sector), but that the sales and trading business is expected to be a bit softer, and corporate finance is also looking a little weaker owing to the softness in markets.