Fiduciary Network has purchased a minority equity position in Brouwer, Janachowski & Co., a San Francisco-based advisory firm with about 200 clients and slightly under $700 million in assets. The transaction is the fourth deal completed by Fiduciary Network since the Dallas-based holding company was launched in early 2007. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"We've managed to create some career tracks here, but we wanted to expand ownership and bring in some new people as well," CEO Kurt Brouwer says. "Our new shareholders will be able to buy into the firm by borrowing from Fiduciary Network."
The deal also provides an eventual business plan for Brouwer and a put option on Janachowski's equity. "This was a deal with a long tail and lots of business planning," Fiduciary Network CEO Mark Hurley says. He adds that the firm could use their stock as a currency to purchase other firms in the Bay area.
Hurley reports that some of the three other firms Fiduciary Network has acquired-which collectively manage about $4 billion-are involved in such sub-acquisitions, though he did not provide any details.
"We've never done an acquisition," Brouwer says. "Others had approached us in the past, but we didn't have the means. It certainly is something we'll take a look at."