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Houlihan Lokey (HLI) to Acquire Waller Helms, Boost Coverage
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Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (HLI - Free Report) has signed an agreement to acquire Waller Helms Advisors (“Waller Helms”). The deal, expected to be completed by Dec 31, 2024, aligns with the company’s inorganic expansion strategy. The financial terms of the deal were not revealed.
Chicago-based Waller Helms, founded in 2014, offers advisory services associated with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private capital raising and valuation services, advising clients mainly in the insurance and wealth management sectors. Since its inception, the firm has been an advisor for more than 230 transactions with more than $40 billion of cumulative value.
Roughly 50 financial professionals (including 13 managing directors) from Waller Helms will join HLI. These professionals will join HLI at multiple locations, including Chicago, New York, Miami and the greater Atlanta area.
Jeffrey Levine, global head of Financial Services at Houlihan Lokey, stated, “The addition of this talented group of bankers is highly complementary to our Financial Services platform, adding meaningfully to our current coverage capabilities across numerous subsectors within insurance and wealth management. On a combined basis, the Group is now the number one advisor to clients in the insurance and wealth management sectors.”
On a pro forma basis and per the data from LSEG, the combined entity is the top advisor for all global M&A deals in 2023 across the sectors, including insurance, asset management, wealth management and financial services sector, while it excludes the depositories sector.
Larry DeAngelo, global co-head of Corporate Finance at Houlihan Lokey, said, “The addition of the Waller Helms team is exemplary of our desire to provide our clients with the greatest depth of sector expertise in the midcap space, alongside our market-leading private capital expertise, extensive relationships among financial sponsors, and other services.”
This move is in line with HLI’s inorganic growth strategy. This May, the company acquired Triago Management Development to provide a fully integrated advisory platform and to offer clients primary, secondary, direct, and general partner advisory services globally. In February 2023, Houlihan Lokey acquired Oakley Advisory to significantly enhance its global coverage of the digital infrastructure sector and augment the existing sector coverage in Europe.
Year to date, shares of Houlihan Lokey have gained 24.3% against the industry’s decline of 3.7%.
Earlier this month, BNP Paribas SA (BNPQY - Free Report) entered into negotiations with AXA to acquire the entire stake in AXA Investment Managers (“AXA IM”), which holds roughly €850 billion in assets under management. Further, an agreement has been established between the two entities for a long-term partnership to manage a substantial portion of AXA’s assets.
The acquisition is expected to reduce the common equity tier 1 ratio of BNPQY by roughly 25 basis points. Nonetheless, the expected return on invested capital is anticipated to be greater than 18% by the third year after the completion of the integration process.
Similarly, Wintrust Financial Corporation (WTFC - Free Report) completed an all-stock deal to acquire Macatawa Bank Corporation for $510.3 million or $14.85 per share. The merger agreement, which is not expected to have a material effect on Wintrust’s 2024 earnings, was signed this April.
Per the terms of the deal, each of Macatawa’s common shares outstanding was converted into the right to receive 0.137 shares of WTFC common stock, with cash paid in lieu of fractional shares.
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Houlihan Lokey (HLI) to Acquire Waller Helms, Boost Coverage
Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (HLI - Free Report) has signed an agreement to acquire Waller Helms Advisors (“Waller Helms”). The deal, expected to be completed by Dec 31, 2024, aligns with the company’s inorganic expansion strategy. The financial terms of the deal were not revealed.
Chicago-based Waller Helms, founded in 2014, offers advisory services associated with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private capital raising and valuation services, advising clients mainly in the insurance and wealth management sectors. Since its inception, the firm has been an advisor for more than 230 transactions with more than $40 billion of cumulative value.
Roughly 50 financial professionals (including 13 managing directors) from Waller Helms will join HLI. These professionals will join HLI at multiple locations, including Chicago, New York, Miami and the greater Atlanta area.
Jeffrey Levine, global head of Financial Services at Houlihan Lokey, stated, “The addition of this talented group of bankers is highly complementary to our Financial Services platform, adding meaningfully to our current coverage capabilities across numerous subsectors within insurance and wealth management. On a combined basis, the Group is now the number one advisor to clients in the insurance and wealth management sectors.”
On a pro forma basis and per the data from LSEG, the combined entity is the top advisor for all global M&A deals in 2023 across the sectors, including insurance, asset management, wealth management and financial services sector, while it excludes the depositories sector.
Larry DeAngelo, global co-head of Corporate Finance at Houlihan Lokey, said, “The addition of the Waller Helms team is exemplary of our desire to provide our clients with the greatest depth of sector expertise in the midcap space, alongside our market-leading private capital expertise, extensive relationships among financial sponsors, and other services.”
This move is in line with HLI’s inorganic growth strategy. This May, the company acquired Triago Management Development to provide a fully integrated advisory platform and to offer clients primary, secondary, direct, and general partner advisory services globally. In February 2023, Houlihan Lokey acquired Oakley Advisory to significantly enhance its global coverage of the digital infrastructure sector and augment the existing sector coverage in Europe.
Year to date, shares of Houlihan Lokey have gained 24.3% against the industry’s decline of 3.7%.
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Houlihan Lokey currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Other Banks Taking Similar Steps
Earlier this month, BNP Paribas SA (BNPQY - Free Report) entered into negotiations with AXA to acquire the entire stake in AXA Investment Managers (“AXA IM”), which holds roughly €850 billion in assets under management. Further, an agreement has been established between the two entities for a long-term partnership to manage a substantial portion of AXA’s assets.
The acquisition is expected to reduce the common equity tier 1 ratio of BNPQY by roughly 25 basis points. Nonetheless, the expected return on invested capital is anticipated to be greater than 18% by the third year after the completion of the integration process.
Similarly, Wintrust Financial Corporation (WTFC - Free Report) completed an all-stock deal to acquire Macatawa Bank Corporation for $510.3 million or $14.85 per share. The merger agreement, which is not expected to have a material effect on Wintrust’s 2024 earnings, was signed this April.
Per the terms of the deal, each of Macatawa’s common shares outstanding was converted into the right to receive 0.137 shares of WTFC common stock, with cash paid in lieu of fractional shares.