Up and Coming Bank Acquires Prestigious Legacy Brand, EF Hutton

Photo by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash

As 2021 rolls into the summer, banking, investing, and SPACs are heating up along with the temperature. Emerging investment banks have been catering to small and mid-cap companies and have been growing through acquisitions and roll-ups, especially in the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) space.

Kingswood Capital Markets (LON: KWG) is a “Global Full Service Middle Market Investment Bank” and is one example of a public company that is adding to the overall development of the market and its conditions. Their activity in the SPAC space has propelled them into the limelight recently as the up-and-coming Wall Street investment bank. They are also launching a series of new SPACs and plan on continuing their work in the sector.

Kingswood has just announced that they have acquired the rights to the name and brand of EF Hutton and will be renamed to match. EF Hutton was originally founded in 1904 in San Francisco as one of the first brokerages to open in California and was the second largest stock brokerage firm in the United States for a time. The revival of the EF Hutton brand and legacy by Kingswood was officially announced by Kingswood saying:

“Kingswood Capital Markets, a global investment bank focused on both private and public small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap issuers announced today that it has secured the rights to use the EF Hutton brand, a name that is globally recognized as the prestigious century-old U.S. bulge bracket bank, and will now be known as EF Hutton.”

This move on the part of Kingswood points to a broader trend in the industry for heightened acquisition and roll-up activity, and indicates a continued rise and growth of the SPAC market. By leveraging the ability to efficiently and effectively create and operate SPACs, Kingswood may be able to court small and mid-cap companies with high potential to be rolled into their offerings. As the summer continues and more targeted SPAC deals commence, the new EF Hutton might be an important investment banking company to watch to understand trends in the market as a whole.

Kingswood is now demonstrating a driven and optimistic long-term outlook for the company and is joining the ranks of other mid-tier investment banks that have successfully grown through acquisition, such as Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE: JEF), Steifel (NYSE: SF), Raymond James Financial (NYSE: RJF), and B.Riley (NASDAQ: RILY), who recently acquired National Securities (NASDAQ: NHLD).