Recalibrating the machine: Investment banks refocus - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

bengeyqafiba1640.blogspot.com
Many are shifting their focus to private placements of financingsand M&A activity, while others are looking for more recurring revenue for their The IPO market is moribund. “It’s not as if we’re experiencin g a slowdown. It’s more like someon e came in and hit the switchbto off,” said Michael Moe, CEO of ThinkPanmure. “I our first seven years, we were going full throttle,” Moe “But in the last 15 to 18 there’s been more hunkering down so that we can be sure whenthe storm’z over we’ll be able to resume our growth.
” ThinkPanmure, formerly known as ThinkEquity before last year’s merger with British investment bank ., shed 10 percen t of its staff last “We still believe the greatest growt h is in front of us. I’ as optimistic as I’ve ever been for a firm like Moe said, demonstrating the tenacity needed to stee r an investment bankthrough today’zs treacherous waters. Signs of pessimism abound. , for recently surveyed venture capitalists and found most 40percent — don’t expect to see a steady stream of IPOs until 2010.
A quarterr aren’t holding out hope till 2011, whil 12 percent say that IPO activit will never again reach historic averageeannual levels. Optimists point to those same figurezs and see signals of apotential “It’s hard to say what Octobet is going to look like, much less 2010,” Moe said earlier this year that it shed 22 perceng of its workforce, bringing total employment to about 600 And the second quarter provided little cause for hope.
“The difficult economic environment continued to challengeour performance, and we don’ft anticipate significant improvement in market conditions in the near future,” Chairmanj and CEO Thomas Weisel said in announcing secondf quarter results. He did note that revenue growth in its bankingt operations doubled between the first andsecond quarter, with the recent acquisition of contributing almost a third of total banking revenue. Some top bankers question whether taking companies public will ever again serve as the foundatiob oftheir business.
In that camp is Benjamih Howe, CEO of America’s Growth a Boston emerging growth investment bank with an officw in theBay Area. “The market has changecd dramatically,” Howe said. He points to the highetr threshold that’s required of a company going publicf in the wake ofthe Sarbanes-Oxlet Act, which means many of Wall Street’d top-tier firms are eager to be the lead managerd of these larger companies making public debuts. Howe says his firm has avoiderd layoffs by maintaining a lean now employing about 40 professionals and hiringvery selectively. also shed staff this year.
“We essentially lookedf at the businesses we’r e in and assessed who would we hire saidJon Merriman. The firm cut aboutg 35 positions, bringing totalo employment at MCF toabout 150. The firm expectsz paring its workforce willsave $7 millionm on an annualized basis — a significan amount of money these days. MCF’xs net loss for the second quarterwas $5.1 million, comparedc with profit of $2.3 milliobn a year ago. “There’s been a level of wealth destruction in the financial sector like we saw with the Merriman said.
“Not adjusting to current circumstances willkill