J. & W. Seligman & Co.

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J. & W. Seligman & Co. , founded in 1846, was an American investment bank from 1860 to the 1930s when the investment business followed the regulatory separation of commercial and investment banks was split off by the Glass-Steagall Act . The company was involved in the funding of several major US railways in the 1870s, as well as in the construction of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s. Seligman was also involved in the founding of Standard Oil and General Motors .

Today Seligman still works as an investment company under the Seligman Investments brand . Seligman offers custody management and old-age insurance, and operates a number of mutual funds .

history

Foundation and previous history

The company was founded in 1846 by Joseph Seligman and his brother James Seligman as an import company in New York. The younger brothers William, Jesse, Henry and Leopold were other partners. Two other brothers, Abraham and Isaac, also joined later. All brothers were born in Baiersdorf in Germany . In 1850 William, Jesse, Henry and Leopold moved to San Francisco , California , where they opened a store in 1851. After eight years, Jesse and William returned to New York and ran a haberdashery store in the city, as they did with their parents. Through William's efforts, they were awarded the government contract to supply uniforms for the US Army. The contract was worth several million dollars.

Villa Seligman, Frankfurt am Main, Zimmerweg 2, Mainzer Landstrasse
Joseph Seligman (1819-1880)

After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the eight Seligman brothers decided to get into banking. A year later, Jesse Seligman went to Frankfurt in Germany to open a bank; the Seligmans were the first American bank to sell United States government bonds in Europe. The company was hired as a trustee to convert existing war bonds into new ones and served as the bond trustee of the US State Department and the Department of the Navy for years. Soon after, Abraham Seligman opened a bank in New York, which was soon followed by a London branch run by Isaac and Leopold Seligman and a Paris branch under William Seligman.

In the post-Civil War rubber barons era, the company invested in railroad finance, specifically as broker for the transactions Jay Gould was making. Seligman's holdings included the Missouri Pacific Railroad , the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad , the South Pacific Railroad and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad . Later, in 1876, the Seligmans teamed up with the Vanderbilt family to set up utility companies in New York.

The eight Seligman brothers fathered 36 sons, but only Isaac Newton Seligman, Joseph's second son, assumed a management position in the company when he took over the management of the company in 1894. In the 19th century, J. & W. Seligman & Co. Inc. had subsidiaries in Paris, Frankfurt and elsewhere. These units became independent in 1897. The London office, in the legal form of a partnership , Seligman Bros., was taken over by the bank SG Warburg & Co. in 1957 .

20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the company supported the construction of the Panama Canal. During this time J. & W. Seligman & Co. Inc. issued securities for a number of companies and participated in the stock and bond issues of companies in the railway, steel and cable industries, with exposures as far as Russia and Peru. They were involved in founding Standard Oil, as well as shipyards, bridges, bicycles, mining companies, and many others. In 1910, when automaker General Motors was still in its infancy, William C. Durant gave the seats on the board to the Seligmans and Lee, Higginson & Co. in exchange for subscribing to a $ 15 million bond.

In 1930, Seligman began managing the first investment fund, Broad Street Investing Co., later known as the Seligman Common Stock Fund . Meanwhile, the investment banking business declined significantly in the 1930s. In response to the requirements of the Glass-Steagall Act , Seligman spun off its securities subscriptions under the name Union Securities in 1938 . Union Securities was founded in 1956 by a securities dealer Eastman Dillon adopted and changed its name after the merger with Eastman Dillon Union Securities & Co . In 1979, the stockbroker bought Paine Webber , the company, which now Blyth, Eastman Dillon & Co. said. In 2000 it became part of the investment division of the Swiss UBS AG . Parts of J. & W. Seligman & Co. Inc. still operate today as a closed investment company Tri Continental and as Seligman mutual funds .

In 1980, Seligman's investment business, which until then had been partnered by its employees, was transformed into a private corporation owned by 43 employees. In 1989 there was a $ 52.6 million management buy-out under the leadership of William C. Morris, who previously worked at Shearson Lehman / American Express . The buy-out was financed by an insurance consortium.

In 1991, Seligman embarked on a joint venture with the Henderson Group , one of Europe's largest independent asset managers. The joint venture Seligman Henderson Co. was supposed to give the company a worldwide presence, which it could not do alone. In 1993, the company left the William Street offices and moved to Park Avenue. After selling the service for wealthy private customers to the US Trust Corp in 1995, Seligman concentrated on the business with institutional investors. In 1997 the first offshore investment fund was offered to foreign investors.

Seligman grew significantly in the 1990s, largely due to the performance of the outstanding fund manager Paul Wick. The Seligman Communication & Information Fund , administered by Wick, was one of the best-performing funds of the mid-1990s, while the mainstay of Tri-Continental Corporation was poor in an up -and- coming market. The bursting of the internet bubble had a major impact on Seligman. The former star, the Communication & Information Fund , lost nearly half of the $ 6.5 billion it had been worth at its 1999 peak. The company was almost sold in 2003, but the owners insisted on keeping a blocking minority.

In November 2008, Ameriprise Financial acquired J. & W. Seligman & Co. Incorporated for a total of $ 440 million. Today the company operates under the name Seligman Investments.

swell

  1. ^ The Seligman Legacy ( Memento October 24, 2001 in the Internet Archive ). Company website
  2. ^ New Owners and Chief For J. & W. Seligman . New York Times, Jan 2, 1989
  3. ↑ Blink, and you may miss out on a star manager's newest fund. New York Times, July 25, 1995
  4. ^ Tri-Continental Directors Turn Deaf Ear on Wake-Up Call . New York Times, May 18, 1997

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