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Raymond James Financial inks $172.5 million deal to buy Scout Investments

 
Raymond James Financial has reached an agreement to buy Scout Investments and its Reams Asset Management division, both of Kansas City, for $172.5 million from UMB Financial Corp. [Times file photo]
Raymond James Financial has reached an agreement to buy Scout Investments and its Reams Asset Management division, both of Kansas City, for $172.5 million from UMB Financial Corp. [Times file photo]
Published April 20, 2017

ST. PETERSBURG — Continuing a growth curve that is showing no sign of abating, St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial announced this morning that it is buying Kansas City-based Scout Investments from the UMB Financial Corp. in a $172.5 million deal.

The agreement includes Scout's Reams Asset Management division, and Raymond James said in a news release Scout and Reams would join its subsidiary, Carillon Tower Advisers, a global asset management firm.

Once Scout joins the Carillon subsidiary, the operation will have combined assets of more than $60 billion, Raymond James said.

The deal is the latest sign that Raymond James is maturing as a major non-Wall Street power in the financial industry. Such growth is propelled by record profits and the fact that Raymond James now carries enough heft to recruit and retain veteran financial advisers from the bigger New York firms.

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"Building on our strong foundation of asset management expertise is a key component of the firm's growth strategy and its focus on providing retail and institutional clients with sophisticated investment options, said Raymond James Chairman and CEO Paul Reilly in a statement. "As with all additions to the Raymond James family, Scout and Reams bring complimentary cultures and management philosophies to the asset management division."

Scout was founded as a division of UMB in 1982. Scout and Reams have a combined $27 billion under management and advisement. Raymond James describes Reams as an institutional-focused fixed income specialist with Scout as an equity asset manager.

"The addition of these well-recognized franchises to our multi-boutique model is a natural extension of our long-term growth strategy," said Carillon Tower president and chairman Cooper Abbott.

In late 2015, Raymond James announced its acquisition of part of Deutsche Bank's wealth management business in a transaction analysts pegged at about $420 million, a deal that added 200 Deutsche financial advisers of high-end and ultra high-end clients to the company's fold.

Raymond James' biggest acquisition, however, came in 2012 when it purchased the Morgan Keegan regional brokerage firm in Memphis for $930 million.

Raymond James has leveraged itself as being different from the nation's biggest financial houses with Reilly noting in 2012 when the firm acquired the Deutsche Bank business, "We are the premier alternative to Wall Street."

Contact William R. Levesque at levesque@tampabay.com. Follow @Times_Levesque.