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Duff & Phelps Corporation
Company typePublic (NYSE: DUF)
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1932
HeadquartersNew York, New York, United States
ProductsFinancial advisory
Investment banking
Number of employees
1,300+
Websitewww.duffandphelps.com

Duff & Phelps Corporation (NYSE: DUF) is a publicly traded financial advisory and investment banking firm, providing services principally in the areas of valuation, transactions, financial restructuring, dispute and taxation. The company operates in three segments: Financial Advisory, which provides valuation advisory, tax services, and legal management consulting; Alternative Asset Advisory, which provides portfolio valuation, operational due diligence, and complex asset solutions; and Investment Banking, which provides mergers and acquisitions advisory services, transaction opinions, and restructuring advisory services.

Duff & Phelps serves a number of industry-specific clients across the globe. Clients include: financial institutions, professional service firms, media and entertainment companies, aerospace companies, energy companies, real estate companies, utilities companies, pharmaceutical companies, health care companies and consumer product companies.

The company, which was founded in 1932, is based in New York City and has offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.

History

1932–1992

Duff & Phelps was founded in 1932 to provide investment research. Since that time, the firm expanded into investment banking and investment management as well as credit rating. In 1979, Duff & Phelps expanded into investment management, creating what would become Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. (DPIMC). The company remained employee-owned, originally as a partnership and later as an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).

In 1984, the company was nearly acquired by Security Pacific Corp. in a $35 million transaction. However, the deal was called off in early 1985 Security Pacific Corp. because of restraints put on the deal by the Federal Reserve Board, which would have precluded the company from issuing public credit ratings.[1][2][3]

The company was acquired five years later, in 1989, in a $146 million management buyout. The buyout was backed by Freeman, Spogli & Co., a private equity firm, which controlled approximately two-thirds of the company, and management and employees owning the remaining third of the company's equity. The transaction was highly leveraged, financed with 79% bank borrowings and 15% coupon high-yield bonds.[4] The company was taken public for the first time in 1992 through an initial public offering of stock on the New York Stock Exchange.[5]

Since 1993

By the mid-1990s, Duff & Phelps, which was operating as a publicly traded company, began to focus on its core investment management, financial advisory and investment banking operations. As a result, in October 1994, the Duff & Phelps's credit rating business, Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co., was spun off to its shareholders and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.[6] In 2000, Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. was acquired by Fitch Group, which later eliminated the use of the Duff & Phelps name.[7]

In November 1995, Duff & Phelps merged with Phoenix Securities Group, a subsidiary of Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Company, and the company was renamed Phoenix Duff & Phelps Corporation. Ultimately, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. would be split off from the remainder of the business as a subsidiary of Phoenix Investment Partners, later Virtus Investment Partners (Nasdaq: VRTS). In addition to DPIMC, Virtus owns a group of five other investment management companies.[8] In 2000, the company, which comprised the remaining investment banking and financial advisory businesses, was acquired by Webster Financial Corporation.[9]

In 2004, Lovell Minnick Partners sponsored a management buyout of the company, the second time the company had undergone a leveraged buyout transaction, acquiring the company from its then owner, Webster Financial Corporation. As part of the transaction, the company was merged with Stone Ridge Partners, a middle-market investment banking firm.[10][11] In 2005, the company raised equity from Vestar Capital Partners to support the company's acquisition strategy that included the purchase of Standard & Poor's Corporate Value Consulting business as well as Valuemetrics, a financial advisory firm specializing in valuation services founded in 1981.[12]

In 2006, it acquired specialty investment bank Chanin Capital Partners, LLC.

In 2007, Duff & Phelps completed its second initial public offering raising $133 million and listing the company's shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO provided a partial exit for its two private equity financial sponsors.[13][14] Also in 2007, the firm formed a strategic alliance with Tokyo-based Shinsei Bank. More recently, the firm has continued its acquisition strategy acquiring Dubinsky & Co., a financial consulting company and Kane Reece Associates.[15]

2012

Duff and Phelps were appointed as the administrators to Rangers F.C., who were believed to have officially entered administration on 14 February 2012.

On April 29, 2012, The Drum: Modern Marketing & Media reported veteran Scottish journalist Glenn Gibbons referred to the representatives of Duff & Phelps, as “now widely regarded as the most incompetent administrators ever to be charged with righting a listing football club”.[16]

References

  1. ^ Associate Press. "Security Pacific's Duff & Phelps Bid". The New York Times, January 11, 1984.
  2. ^ "Security Pacific Corp. Calls Off Acquisition of Duff & Phelps". Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1985.
  3. ^ "Security Pacific, Duff Merger Off". The New York Times, January 10, 1985
  4. ^ Berg, Eric N. "A MONEY MANAGER IS IN THE MONEY". The New York Times, September 9, 1989.
  5. ^ "Duff & Phelps Stock Offering". The New York Times, January 21, 1992.
  6. ^ Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co.. SEC Form 10-K 2006 Annual Report, March 27, 1997
  7. ^ Duff & Phelps Acquired. New York Times, March 9, 2000.
  8. ^ Phoenix Duff & Phelps Corporation. SEC Form 10-K 1996 Annual Report, March 28, 1997
  9. ^ Webster to Buy Controlling Interest in Financial Advisory Firm, Oct 31, 2000]
  10. ^ Duff & Phelps LLC Acquired by Management and Investor Group, March 15, 2004
  11. ^ Company Briefs. New York Times, March 16, 2004
  12. ^ Duff & Phelps Acquires Valuemetrics; Plans Further Expansion of Financial Advisory and Investment Banking Practice, Jan 19, 2005
  13. ^ Duff & Phelps files for $200 mln IPO. Reuters, May 23, 2007
  14. ^ Public Exits: Duff & Phelps. Reuters Buyouts, October 10, 2007
  15. ^ Duff & Phelps Buys Kane Reece. Mergers Unleashed, August 1, 2008
  16. ^ The Drum: Modern Marketing & Media.April 29, 2012
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