While no “Black Friday Sale” signs are expected to appear (that’s right, Black Friday is a negative in the world of Wall Street), according to coverage from InvestmentNews.com, coupled with a further investigation by the curators at BrokerDealer.com, prices for IBDs are going lower, not higher; creating opportunities for new entrants and headaches for rumored sellers that include Cetera Financial Group.

(InvestmentNews.com) November 25 A glut of independent broker-dealer firms (IBDs) for sale is creating a buyer’s market for independent broker-dealers that could put pressure on the prices sellers are able to attract.

Firms for sale include Cetera Financial Group, AIG Adviser Group and Next Financial Group, which collectively represent 15 individual broker-dealers and more than 15,000 registered representatives and advisers.

BrokerDealer.com maintains the world’s largest directory of broker-dealers in more than three dozen countries and a robust database of those interested in buying or selling broker-dealers

“There is a higher number of potential opportunities than we have ever seen before,” said Richard Lampen, president and chief executive of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, which has completed five broker-dealer acquisitions since 2007. “The $64,000 question is, how many deals are going to get done?”

“With so many potential sellers in the market, and rumors of more sellers, I’m curious to see how the market-clearing process will work,” Mr. Lampen said. “There are some willing buyers, but is there a price that’s going to work?”

Mr. Lampen said sellers are going to have a reality check when it comes to offers their properties are likely to attract. He said the industry has put behind it the outsized valuations of independent broker-dealers used in acquisitions by RCS Capital Corp., a brokerage holding company that one-time real estate mogul Nicholas Schorsch put together in a flurry of acquisitions between 2013 and 2014.

“Some sellers still think it’s 2014, and Nick Schorsch price expectations are out there,” Mr. Lampen said. “But it’s hard to imagine any one overpaying at this stage in the process.”

CETERA TOPS THE LIST

The largest of the firms reportedly in play is Cetera Financial Group, the network that Mr. Schorsch put together. It is made up of 10 broker-dealers with about 9,500 reps and advisers. Larry Roth, the CEO of Cetera and its parent company, RCS Capital, told advisers on a conference call recently that a half dozen companies had shown interest in the firm and that a new owner or significant private-equity investor would be in place by year-end.

The full story from InvestmentNews.com is here

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BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extracts from InvestmentNews.com and Bruce Kelly

Nicholas Schorsch continues to add midsized independent broker-dealers to the Cetera Financial Group Network, and on Wednesday night Cetera parent RCS Capital Corp. said it intends to buy Girard Securities Inc.

The San Diego-based firm has more than $10 billion of assets under administration and 250 producing financial advisers with an average annual production of approximately $210,000 per adviser.

It is the second such announced deal in as many weeks for RCS Capital Corp., which is known by its ticker symbol, RCAP. Last week, RCAP said it had agreed to purchase VSR Financial, with 264 registered reps and advisers.

Mr. Schorsch is the executive chairman of RCAP, which did not release the terms of the Girard acquisition. The deal is expected to close late this year or early in 2015.

Richard Woltman, chairman emeritus of the board of directors of Girard, is considered by many to be a pioneer of the independent broker-dealer industry, the two companies said in a statement. Forty years ago, he and two partners founded First Affiliated Securities, the predecessor of what today is known as First Allied Securities, a wholly owned subsidiary of RCAP. First Allied is also based in San Diego.

Once the VSR Financial and Girard Securities acquisitions are completed, RCAP will have close to 9,700 registered reps and advisers housed at 11 different broker-dealers under the Cetera Financial Group. Cetera CEO Larry Roth earlier this week said the integration of certain services such as due diligence was going to be combined at the disparate RCAP broker-dealers, although the firms were going to maintain their separate brands and cultures.

“We believe RCAP’s commitment to maintaining the separate identity and culture of Girard was one of the most attractive aspects of this combination,” Mr. Woltman’s daughter and chief executive of Girard, Susie Woltman Tietjen, said in a statement. “This transaction will allow Girard to leverage the resources of what we believe to be one of the industry’s fastest growing and most innovative firms.”

“We view Girard, along with our recently announced agreement to acquire VSR Group, as another example of an exciting accretive ‘tuck-in’ acquisition for our retail investment advice platform,” Mr. Roth said in a statement.

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