Financial services firm D.A. Davidson & Co. has shifted its Los Angeles investment banking office to Costa Mesa in a move that makes Orange County its largest center of operations.
Davidson is based in Great Falls, Mont., and has its investment banking arm, known as Equity Capital Markets, headquartered in Portland, Ore.
The firm, which has $25 billion in assets under management, had maintained offices in Los Angeles and Laguna Beach. Those together made Southern California its second-largest regional operation next to Oregon until the company boosted its presence in OC with the acquisition of Costa Mesa-based McGladrey Capital Markets LLC in February of 2012.
“Now with the merger with the McGladrey guys, our largest concentration of investment bankers is in OC,” said Managing Director Brad Gevurtz, who oversees D.A. Davidson’s investment banking group.
The company has smaller investment banking offices in Seattle, Salt Lake City and Chicago.
D.A. Davidson Equity Capital Markets focuses on mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and other advisory services. The company has worked on more than 220 mergers and acquisitions deals between 2007 and 2011, and was ranked No. 2 among U.S. advisers serving the “middle market”—deals worth between $20 million and $500 million.
The new OC office for D.A. Davidson, at 611 Anton Blvd., will house about 35 employees. Seven have moved from Los Angeles, and four have moved from Laguna Beach. The rest are from the former McGladrey office, which was near the Anton Boulevard building.
“The legacy Davidson bankers and the McGladrey bankers are very complementary,” Gevurtz said. “[The acquisition] has been almost a year, so we don’t use the ‘McGladrey’ term anymore. But we as D.A. Davidson were already expanding in this area. And by merging, it gave us more critical mass.”
The decision to move to Orange County was based in part on the size, concentration and diversity of the professional-services sector here.
“There are lots of businesses here, lots of business professionals for cross-referrals,” Gevurtz said. “There are a lot of attorneys and accountants. Also, our people like the quality of life in OC. It’s not a low-cost area. We made a big commitment to this.”
D.A. Davidson Equity Capital Markets has professional investment bankers across a range of industries, including aerospace and healthcare—areas that Gevurtz expects will be well served by the firm’s expanded presence in OC.
“It’s not so much ‘not Los Angeles,’ but more so ‘pro-OC,’ ” Gevurtz said.
