Focus Financial Partners, a New York-based wealth management behemoth, has filed for a $100 million initial public offering.
According to a Form S-1 registration document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Focus will trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange using the symbol "FOCS."
Focus Financial, an independent wealth management firm, has grown to a partnership of more than 50 independent firms in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the U.K. After being founded in 2006 by former McKinsey & Co. partner Rudy Adolf, the RIA started out by purchasing majority equity interests in other independent RIAs, but later specialized in helping wirehouse brokers break away.
Focus has majority interests in RIA firms including the Boston-based Colony Group; St. Louis-based Buckingham Strategic Wealth; Coastal Bridge Advisors in Westport, Conn.; Fort Pitt Capital of Pittsburgh; and New York firms Douglas C. Lane & Associates and Flynn Family Office.
In 2017, Focus was purchased by a group of private equity investors led by Greenwich, Conn.-based Stone Point Capital and New York-based KKR, in a deal that valued the firm at $2 billion.
Focus brought in $663 million in revenue in 2017, according to the SEC filing, and 90 percent of its revenues are generated from recurring fees. Ascertaining the value and AUM of a firm with the size and complexity of Focus is difficult.
Rumors about a Focus Financial IPO have circulated for several years. In 2015, “industry sources” told Financial Advisor that Focus was planning to file an S-1 document. Later, in 2016, a Wall Street Journal report citing “unnamed sources” said that the firm had already confidentially filed for an IPO.
No pricing information was given in the filing.