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JMP Plans IPO

Laurie Kulikowski

JMP Group is the latest boutique brokerage firm looking to go public.

The firm could raise up to $100 million in the offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It plans to trade under the ticker JMP.

JMP was founded in 1999 by former executives from Montgomery Securities, which was acquired by Bank of America(BAC Quote).

JMP Securities, Merrill Lynch(MER Quote) and Keefe Bruyette & Woods(KBW Quote) are underwriting the deal.

The move comes after several other boutique firms, including Cowen(COWN Quote), Thomas Weisel(TWPG Quote), Evercore(EVR Quote) and KBW, looked to the public markets to raise capital last year. But investor reception of the JMP IPO is still a tossup.

Shares of KBW, Evercore and Thomas Wiesel did well on their first days of trading, but Cowen's IPO was disappointing after it priced shares below the anticipated range. Ryan Beck, the brokerage and investment banking arm of BankAtlantic(BBX Quote), nixed its IPO altogether and instead settled for a buyout from Stifel Financial(SF Quote).

The San Francisco-based JMP Group operates two subsidiaries: JMP Securities, which specializes in investment banking services for the technology, healthcare, consumer, real estate and financial services sectors, and JMP Asset Management, an investment advisory firm.

"We believe that small and middle-market companies now receive less consistent attention from consolidated investment banking firms, which now pursue clients and transactions with larger market values," the firm said in the filing. "Due to our focus on small and middle-market companies within our six target industries, we believe that our extensive relationships and expertise in serving these companies provide us with a distinct competitive advantage."

JMP says becoming public will allow the firm to "better execute its growth strategy" and will give the firm "greater visibility with prospective clients and industry peers, increased access to capital," and the ability to attract and retain talent.

From 2000 through 2005, JMP increased revenue from $13.4 million to $94.7 million. Profit rose from $1.2 million to $10.3 million. For the first nine months of last year, the firm generated revenues of $63.7 million and pro forma net income of $6.4 million.