Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
T. Michael Smith, president of Ferguson, Andrews, said the deal should be closed in two to four weeks. Terms were not disclosed.
Bradford purchased Ferguson, Andrews offices in Roanoke, Lynchburg and Bristol.
A fourth office, in Charlottesville, will be closed. However, Ferguson, Andrews Investment Advisors Inc., a subsidiary, will continue in Charlottesville with its five employees. It will continue to be owned by Gray Ferguson of Charlottesville, the firm's founder.
In Virginia, Bradford has offices in Roanoke, Lynchburg, Danville and Martinsville. Smith said the duplicate offices in Roanoke and Lynchburg will be consolidated.
Smith said all of the 27 Ferguson, Andrews employees in Roanoke will be retained by Bradford. He said he expected the consolidated office to be at the Ferguson, Andrews headquarters in the Liberty Trust Building on Jefferson Street in Roanoke. Bradford has its office in the old Colonial Arms Building, less than a block away at Jefferson and Campbell Avenue.
James C. Bradford Jr., senior partner in the firm at Nashville, appeared less certain of those outcomes.
He said Smith, who was once director of research for Bradford in Nashville in the 1980s, will return to the firm.
"We made the deal today," Bradford said Thursday. "We don't know who's who, where or what."
"A brokerage firm is people; that's who we're interested in," Bradford said. But he said his representatives haven't met anyone yet. "Give me a week," Bradford said of staffing and location decisions, "and I'll tell you."
Bradford said the acquisition will "make us No. 1 in the market. I think there's some advantage to that."
"This purchase will enable us to strengthen the firm and expand our presence in Southwest Virginia," Bradford said. "We like to be the dominant firm in the areas we serve."
The Bradford firm operates about 80 offices in 15 states and is the largest firm based in the Southeast United States. The company has about 800 brokers.
Bradford said he was leaving on an extended trip, but his regional vice president, Rudy Vincente, was on his way to Roanoke to supervise the deal.
Smith said Bradford was seeking to expand in Virginia. Ferguson, Andrews, which has about 5,000 clients, had also tried to expand, notably through a merger with Anderson & Strudwick of Richmond that collapsed in March after the agreement was signed.
"No one seemed to want to dance," Smith said of other merger efforts by three-year-old Ferguson, Andrews. Then the possibility of a deal with J.C. Bradford & Co. arose. "I'll be a happy employee," Smith said of his role with the merged firm.
"This is a win-win situation," Smith said. "Bradford gets the opportunity to grow quickly and establish a major presence in Southwest Virginia, and our clients have the benefits of a large firm with the latest in technology."
Smith said the merger presents an opportunity to expand services.
by CNB