Schorsch’s RCS Capital to Acquire Investors Capital Holdings

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

Nicholas Schorsch, RCAP

RCS Capital Corp. is expanding again, announcing two acquisitions within two days this week worth a reported $92.2 million – Investors Capital Holding Ltd. and Hatteras Funds Group.

RCAP and ICH, a Lynnfield Mass.-based independent broker-dealer and investment advisory firm, said Wednesday they had signed a letter of intent for RCAP to acquire the company that has 550 registered representatives across the United States. An ICH filing with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission said RCAP intended to pay $52.2 million for ICH, or $7.35 per share.

ICH President & CEO Tim Murphy and his management team would continue to operate autonomously under ICH’s brands as part of the RCAP family of companies. RCAP is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Realty Capital, the New York-based investment advisory firm and sponsor of numerous REITs, mainly non-traded real estate offerings, run by Nicholas Schorsch.

Once completed, the acquisition would provide a sixth line of business for RCAP, led by Schorcsh as executive chairman, CEO William Kahane and President Edward Weil, Jr. The other lines include direct investment distribution, banking, transaction management services and transfer agent businesses.

On Tuesday, RCAP added its fifth line of business when it announced it had agreed to acquire Hatteras Funds Group, a Raleigh, N.C.-based firm with more than $2 billion under management across multiple alternative investment funds. The acquisition will be made through a newly formed wholly owned subsidiary of RCS Advisory Services L.L.C., an operating subsidiary of RCAP. Upon closing, the Hatteras Funds Group and the Hatteras Funds, a family of funds that provides alternative investment solutions to financial advisors, will still operate under current management, founder & CEO David Perkins, and its various Hatteras brands.

RCAP said in an Investors Presentation that it planned to pay $30 million cash at closing to Hatteras, followed by $10 million to be paid out over three years along with earn out payments in 2016 and 2018.

Both acquisitions are expected to close in the first quarter of 2014. Proceeds of a June IPO were used to fund the planned purchases of both ICH and Hatteras.

Meanwhile, last week RCAP Holdings L.L.C. closed on the purchase of First Allied Holdings, Inc. of San Diego. Also an independent broker-dealer financial services firm, First Allied has about 1,500 advisors who manage about $32 million in assets for approximately 300,000 clients. The deal, unveiled in June, was hailed as another step forward for RCAP Holdings and its expansion.

The ICH acquisition is seen by RCAP officials as a way to complement and diversify RCAP’s revenue streams.

A RCAP news release about the Hatteras acquisition notes that, “RCAP believes that the acquisition will advance RCAP’s strategic goal of growing its family of companies and expanding its platform of alternative investment offerings.”

Kahane said adding Hatteras and its alternative investment offerings “will complement our existing durable income investment solutions, further build out our distribution footprint through SEC-registered investment companies and wire houses, and provide greater incremental revenue and earnings for RCAP, increasing value for our shareholders.”

Schorsch has grown his companies in recent years with aggressive acquisition moves and high-profile deals. The First Allied acquisition, reportedly worth at least $200 million, along with the IHC purchase will make RCAP one of the largest players in the independent broker-dealer market. Schorsch is also on track to grow American Realty Capital Properties, its net-lease REIT that trades on Nasdaq, into a $10 billion company this year with huge deals such as the $2.2 billion acquisition of CapLease Inc. and $3.1 billion merger with American Realty Capital Trust IV Inc.

Schorsch and his team, which also includes Peter Budko and Brian Block, are apparently still seeking out deals for RCAP before the end of this year, possibly in insurance, according to InvestmentNews.