Monday, Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (TWPG) agreed to buy Westwind Partners, an investment bank focused on the energy and mining sectors.
As per the terms of the deal, Thomas Weisel Partners will pay $146.7 million based on the closing share price on September 28. The payment will consists of $45 million in cash and 7.009 million shares of TWPG common stock. The transaction is expected to close in January 2008.
Following the purchase, Westwind's chief executive officer and president Lionel Conacher will join as president of Thomas Weisel Partners. In addition to Conacher, the new team will include David Beatty, co-founder of Westwind and head of the mining practice and Kevin Tomlinson, a London-based mining banker. Senior energy bankers Alex Wylie and Paul Colucci will also be included in the new team.
Assuming the transaction had occurred at the beginning of 2007, the company said it would have expected Westwind to add revenues between $85 and $90 million and non-GAAP earnings per share between $0.17 and $0.21 for the year 2007.
Weisel Partners said the Westwind acquisition is expected to add between $100 and $110 million to its revenues and between $0.17 and $0.25 to its non-GAAP earnings per share in the year 2008.
According to Weisel Partners, Westwind's presence in Toronto, Calgary and Montreal will help Weisel Partners to expand its geographic reach into Canada.
Commenting on the purchase, Thomas Weisel, CEO and Chairman, said, This acquisition will give us access to the energy and mining sectors which are key verticals to expanding internationally and highly complementary to our existing coverage universe. Companies in these sectors are prodigious capital raisers, and our growth brand applied to these sectors is a powerful combination.
Thomas Weisel Partners's financial advisor on the transaction was its wholly owned subsidiary, Thomas Weisel Partners LLC.
TWPG is currently trading at $14.84, up $0.33 or 2.27%, on a volume of 236K shares.
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