Mr. Kaplan: Ladenburg Thalmann is an investment bank. About a year ago in May, Ladenburg Thalmann acquired a company called Punk Ziegel. Punk Ziegel was a boutique investment bank that focused on health care, and also financial services and emerging growth companies. Ladenburg acquired Punk Ziegel, where I was head of the health care research team. They acquired Punk Ziegel to build their presence in health care research and also financial services. Ladenburg is more diverse than Punk Ziegel was. We cover industries ranging from biotechnology, health care to power and utilities, exploration and production - meaning gas and oil. We also cover water and process industrials; we cover technology companies with a current focus on software; we cover financial services, and we also cover MLPs, Master Limited Partnerships. So we offer a broad range of research coverage. We are a traditional investment bank with trading, and institutional sales and investment bankers. In addition, Ladenburg also has a significant independent investment advisory business - in other words, a large retail operation. Last year, right before they acquired Punk Ziegel, they acquired another group called Investacorp, which is a group of independent investment advisors, and they had - I think it was around 8 million under management. Also just after they acquired Punk Ziegel, they acquired another company called Triad Advisors, and they had about 10 billion under management. So beyond the traditional investment bank, Ladenburg has a substantial independent investor advisory business. Consequently, Ladenburg is more of a diverse platform with retail brokers or independent investment advisers, as well as what Punk Ziegel had, which was a boutique investment bank.
TWST: How many analysts do you have?
Mr. Kaplan: We have about a dozen research analysts.
Tickers included in this excerpt: AIS, BDSI, BMY, JAV, JNJ, KERX, PFE, TEVA, WYE, XOMA
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.