Raymond James to Buy UMB Units, Adding $27 Billion in Assets

(Bloomberg) -- Raymond James Financial Inc. agreed to buy two investment businesses from UMB Financial Corp. for $172.5 million, adding about $27 billion in assets under management.

Scout Investments and Reams Asset Management will become wholly owned subsidiaries of Raymond James’s Carillon Tower Advisers, the St. Petersburg, Florida-based company said Thursday in a statement. Reams is a fixed-income specialist, while Scout is an equity asset manager. The all-cash deal is expected to be completed by year-end, Kansas City, Missouri-based UMB said in a separate statement.

Chief Executive Officer Paul Reilly has been on an acquisition binge as the brokerage seeks to expand outside the U.S. and build out its asset-management business. In the past year, Raymond James has agreed to buy Montreal-based wealth manager MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc. and the U.S. private client unit of Deutsche Bank AG.

“Building on our strong foundation of asset-management expertise is a key component of the firm’s growth strategy,” Reilly said in the statement. “Scout and Reams bring complementary cultures and management philosophies to the asset-management division.”

Raymond James shares slipped 12 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $72.70 at 10:05 a.m. in New York. The stock has gained 4.8 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Steve Dickson