Van Kasper Agrees to Be Bought by Utah Bank Firm

The ranks of independent investment banks thinned again Wednesday when San Francisco-based Van Kasper & Co. agreed to a $100-million purchase by First Security Corp., a bank holding company based in Salt Lake City.

Van Kasper, which has offices in nine cities, including Los Angeles and Newport Beach, will operate as a division of First Security’s capital markets unit.

The deal, which is expected to close in early 1999, includes $10 million in cash to retain key employees and a $90-million tax-free exchange of stock.

Company founder Van Kasper said the deal was the culmination of soul-searching by the employee-owned firm’s board as well as two months’ worth of talks with First Security, which has $19.4 billion in assets and 315 bank branches in seven Western states.

The deal will give Van Kasper clients access to First Security’s trust, commercial loan, mortgage and municipal bond services, Kasper said.

“Our board has seen more and more of a need for us to become if not the sole advisor for our clients, then the primary advisor,� said Kasper, who will remain the company’s president. “Our clients were asking us why we couldn’t do more for them.�

In turn, First Security customers would gain access to Van Kasper’s expertise in public equity markets, said Scott Ulbrich, First Security’s chief financial officer.

Van Kasper, founded in 1978, carved out a niche among small and middle-size corporate clients by underwriting initial public offerings and corporate bond deals. The company also manages more than $500 million for corporations, trusts and pension plans.

Bank acquisitions of brokerages in recent years have sometimes met with culture clashes between the organizations--most recently resulting in key executive departures from NationsBank’s Montomery Securities unit.

Kasper, who said he expects to stay with the company for at least four years, said Van Kasper would be given “a great deal of autonomy� in its operations.