Euro Pacific Capital Inc., an investment brokerage and advisory firm run by economist Peter Schiff, has moved to new offices within Newport Beach with plans to hire.
The firm now has 22 employees in Orange County and plans to add investment bankers, stock brokers, research-ers and administrative staff in the next year or two.
“We’re planning on increasing our work force and adding more divisions in Orange County,” said Eric Steingruebner, manager of the Newport Beach office. “We’re going to be hiring more brokers, traders and advisers in the next several months.”
Euro Pacific’s local office recently doubled in size with a move to 7,600 square feet of office space near John Wayne Airport.
The firm has more than $2 billion in assets under management at six offices. Euro Pacific, which has 100 employees in all, is based in Westport, Conn., where President and Chief Global Strategist Schiff grew up.
Steingruebner oversees the local operations and helps supervise another 18 people in the firm’s Los Angeles office.
Euro Pacific specializes in investments in global markets. It trades stocks, bonds and other investments, advises fund mangers and handles money for wealthy investors.
One of Euro Pacific’s newer units in Newport Beach is a capital markets group that helps smaller companies raise money through stock and debt offerings.
Euro Pacific hopes to double the size of the group this year, Steingruebner said.
Employee Size
It now has six investment bankers and analysts in Newport Beach, according to Gordon McBean, who joined Euro Pacific about 18 months ago from Newport Beach’s Roth Capital Partners LLC to start the capital markets group.
“We’re planning to expand the group at a pretty aggressive clip over the next year or two,” McBean said.
The unit is expected to go after initial public offerings as that market comes off the lull of the past few years.
Euro Pacific’s wealth management group also is based in the county. That unit manages accounts for wealthy and institutional investors.
Jim Nelson, portfolio manager for Euro Pacific’s wealth management operations, works from Newport Beach.
“As our assets keep growing, we’re planning on hiring additional research and administrative staff to support his operations,” Steingruebner said.
Another unit runs a mutual fund, the Euro Pacific Halter China Fund. It’s managed by Russell Hoss, who also works in Newport Beach with his staff.
Hoss is looking to beef up his analyst team as well, according to Steingruebner.
Euro Pacific plans to add investment funds and money managers, he said.
Newport Beach also is where the company’s gold sales group is based. It sells investments in gold where investors get certificates rather than bullion, Steingruebner said.
That relieves big investors of the headache of storing large amounts of gold, he said.
“It’s a big business for us and has been around for several years now,” Steingruebner said.
Roots
Euro Pacific traces its roots to 1980, when it was formed in Florida as a stock brokerage.
In 1996, Schiff bought the company and moved its headquarters to Newport Beach. Eight years later, he decided to move the headquarters to where he grew up in Connecticut.
Schiff made headlines in 2007 with his book “Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse” and his efforts to warn politicians in Washington, D.C., about the impending mortgage lending crisis.
He made several appearances on cable and network television warning that credit markets were stretched to the point of imploding.
Schiff recently announced plans to run as a Republican in Connecticut to unseat Sen. Christopher Dodd. The Democrat is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and last week introduced a bill to reform regulations governing financial services.
Campaign disclosures showed that Schiff earned about $18.4 million from salary and investment gains during a 23-month period through mid-December.
The Schiff family kept a house for years in Orange County, even after moving back east, according to Andrew Schiff, a Euro Pacific spokesman and brother of Peter Schiff. About two years ago, a home in Huntington Beach owned by the Schiffs’ mother was sold.
“Peter moved to Connecticut to help build more of a bicoastal presence for the company,” Andrew Schiff said. “As we move into the next phase of Euro Pacific’s growth, several of our key groups based in Newport Beach are playing major roles.”
