Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., an investment bank and wealth manager, has agreed to acquire San Francisco-based Brandis Tallman LLC, an investment bank specializing in the underwriting and placement of municipal debt for California issuers, according to a news release.

Completion of the deal, which will make Oppenheimer one of the top underwriters and private placement agents of California municipal bonds, is subject to pending regulatory review and approvals, the release said.

Rick Brandis and Nicki Tallman co-founded Brandis Tallman in 2002. The pair has a combined 60 years of municipal finance experience, the release said. It added that since 2016, Brandis Tallman has closed 242 municipal bond transactions as sole manager or private placement agent. 

Brandis and Tallman will join Oppenheimer as managing directors, continuing to lead their existing team out of San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will operate as a division of Oppenheimer under the Brandis Tallman brand. They will report to Bill Reisner, head of public finance investment banking, the release said.

“As a division of Oppenheimer, Brandis Tallman will optimize its relationships and expertise as a top California municipal bond underwriter, while preserving our brand, our leadership and all the other elements of our team that have driven our success over the years," Brandis and Tallman said in a joint statement.

“In this current economic environment, issuers are increasingly looking for executable solutions to the fiscal challenges brought about by the economic shutdown. We have been developing a team of senior bankers with strong credit expertise and deep sector knowledge, and we expect that issuers will increasingly demand high caliber coverage from their investment bankers,” Reisner said.

New York-based Oppenheimer & Co Inc. is a principal subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc.