Irvine financial services firm Global Vantage Ltd. is expanding with a new office in Dallas and one set to open in Calgary, Alberta, next month.
“Calgary is the financial capital of Western Canada,” said Dick Torre, Global Vantage’s chairman.
Global Vantage does corporate debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, equipment leasing, merchant banking and global finance. It has offices in Newport Beach, Burlingame, Hong Kong, Omaha, Neb., Seattle, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Guadalajara, Mexico.
Canada has appeal for Torre since he lives in Vancouver. He said he spends about 25% of his time in Orange County to maintain business relationships.
He also is chairman of Calgary-based Exceed Capital Holdings Ltd., a firm that makes bridge loans and pre-initial public offering investments. And Global Vantage has a large equipment-leasing client in the Netherlands, so Torre said he is thinking about opening an office there.
“We are going to address that next year,” Torre said.
Global Vantage came about last March when several people in Torre’s old firm, Global Capital Markets Inc., combined with the leasing division of Burlingame-based Crocker Capital to form Global Vantage.
“We merged in a practical sense, but we didn’t in a legal sense,” Torre said.
Along with Torre, the other two partners in the new firm are Jeff Morris and Christine Coalson. Morris and Torre had worked together previously and wanted to join forces again.
“Jeff and I were having one of our periodic lunches and got misty-eyed about the times we were working together,” Torre said with a smile.
“It is better the second time around,” quipped Morris.
The duo brought in Coalson, who had been a key in the leasing division at Crocker.
Torre also wanted a leasing division in his firm to round out the products and services he could offer, though he said the firm was doing just fine.
“The business is handsomely profitable, but neither Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs are shaking in their boots,” Torre said.
The firm is also in the process of starting two securities firms, but it does not plan to offer retail brokerage services. It will have one in Calgary and the other one in Omaha in an effort to get U.S. companies to become publicly traded in Canada.
Having a securities division will allow the firm to have more access to equity markets and have more participation in public offerings, Torre said.
“We haven’t been able to profit from (IPOs),”Torre said.
Global Vantage has a strong tie to Newport Beach start-up bank, Pacific Mercantile Bank. Torre is the vice-chairman of the bank and the two companies help each other get business. Global Vantage gets about 5% to 10% of its business from the Newport Beach bank, Torre estimates.
“It goes both ways,” he said.
Torre said he is excited about the bank, which has $120 million in assets.
“It is well capitalized and has some growth plans afoot. To be a small bank was never its intent,” he said.
Torre and Morris expect the mergers and acquisitions sector to be strong next year, citing a slowdown in the economy and earnings, which could encourage some companies to find stability in business partners.
“The capital markets for growth strategies will not be as strong. Companies that thirst for capital will have little alternative than to get a merger partner that is better financed,” Torre said. “2001 will be an uncertain year because no one will be able to figure out valuations and capital is not available. Banks are too heavy on loan to deposit ratios and there is a credit crunch rapidly evolving. It is good for our business.” n
