Old roots, new bosses
In the early 1900s, English banker J. Henry Schrodersensed an emerging trend. At the time, the finance world was centered in Europe and, specifically, London. Schroder ran J. Henry Schroder & Co., a bank that provided financing to companies for international trading operations. Schroder, sensing that the center of the finance universe would soon shift to New York, established a New York affiliate for his firm, the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corp., in 1923. In 1929, he opened the Schroder Trust Company, a financial services firm for wealthy individuals. In 1978, the firms merged, forming the J. Henry Schroder Bank & Trust Company. In the mid-1980s, at a time when Japanese companies were making significant purchases of U.S. businesses, The Industrial Bank of Japan purchased 49% of the merged firm from holding company Schroder US Holdings. IBJ upped their stake to 97.3% in 1987, and in January 1999, the firm changed its name to IBJ Whitehall Financial Group after IBJ bought out the remaining 2.7%. (Whitehall likely refers to Whitehall Street, the street on the southern tip of Manhattan, near IBJ Whitehall's headquarters.) IBJ Whitehall now provides corporate finance services, asset-backed lending and asset management services.
Merger activity
Like many banks, IBJ Whitehall has seen significant merger activity over the past several years. In 1998, IBJ Whitehall bought Delphi Asset Management Group, expanding its private client business. In 1999, the firm furthered that business even more, purchasing Campbell Advisors in May and 50% of Atlantic Asset Management. The acquisitions boosted IBJ Whitehall's assets under management total to $8 billion. Dennis Buchert, IBJ Whitehall's CEO, said that with the mergers, IBJ Whitehall was ahead of U.S. banks trying to expand internationally into IBJ Whitehall's areas of focus. "All the other investment management companies are scrambling to get a toehold" in Asia and Japan, Buchert told American Banker in January 1999. IBJ, by virtue of its Japanese ownership, already has such a foothold.
For sale: private client and corporate trust services
The merger river flowed the other way, however, when IBJ Whitehall decided to sell off some of its business. In October 1999, Bank of New York purchased IBJ Whitehall's corporate trust service for an undisclosed sum. In December 1999 the firm sold its international private-client business to Schroder US Holdings, the holding company that sold what was then Schroder Bank & Trust to IBJ in 1986. IBJ Whitehall pulled in about $5 million for the Miami, Fla.-based business.
