BRISTOL – Local investment and merchant banking firm The Spectrum Capital Group has been acquired by Morgan Keegan & Company Inc., the brokerage and investment banking subsidiary of Regions Financial Corp., the companies have announced. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Bristol-based Spectrum, which was founded in 1996 and provides advice to troubled companies, will form the backbone of a new Special Situations Group in Morgan Keegan’s investment banking division, Joseph P. Sands, a partner at Spectrum, told Providence Business News in an interview today.
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“We could not be happier,” he said.
Alabama-based Regions Financial is one of the largest regional banks in the U.S. It bought Memphis, Tenn.-based Morgan Keegan in 2001.
Spectrum and its seven employees will remain based in Bristol and will work on growing the practice from here, Sands said. Michael Lederman, Spectrum’s managing partner, will lead the new Special Situations Group at Morgan Keegan, while Sands will become a managing director of the group, he said.
Sands said Spectrum had received a number of inquiries from outside companies looking to boost their offerings to companies facing difficult times as the recession has depended. “The value of our practice goes up when other markets are down,” he said.
Bankers at Morgan Keegan had worked with Spectrum principals on a number of occasions over the years. “Through past association, we were able to see the value they provided to their clients,” Randy Karchmer, co-head of Morgan Keegan’s mergers, acquisitions and financial sponsors practice, said in a statement. “I am delighted to welcome Mike and Joe to our team. They will strengthen Morgan Keegan by complementing our extensive M&A, public equity and debt practices across a wide array of institutions.”
Lederman has been in the restructuring business for more than 25 years. Prior to founding The Spectrum Capital Group, he cofounded the restructuring group at Goldman Sachs, served as a restructuring attorney at Shearman & Sterling, and cofounded the boutique restructuring advisory firm The Gordian Group.
“We’ve had an interest in adding restructuring expertise to our practice for some time, and now we have the right people on board to lead this effort,” Chip Grayson, Morgan Keegan’s executive managing director and director of investment banking, said in a statement. “Mike Lederman’s lengthy experience and respected reputation within the restructuring and investment banking community will translate into tremendous value for our clients.”
Additional information on The Spectrum Capital Group is available at SpectrumCapitalGroup.com.
