Morgan Keegan C-Store Investment Group Gets New Owner

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Morgan Keegan's Convenience Store Investment Banking Group has been fully integrated into financial services firm Raymond James following the acquisition closing on April 2. It is now known as the Convenience Store and Fuel Products Distribution Group.

Managing directors and co-heads Scott Garfinkel, formerly of Morgan Keegan, and Gary Downing, of Raymond James, will lead the group, which now falls under the firm’s General Industrials strategic business unit.

"Our team is very excited to join Raymond James," said Garfinkel. "We've combined our industry-leading M&A [mergers and acquisitions] expertise and company sale experience with the expanded capital markets capabilities of Raymond James. We look forward to providing our clients with broad access to capital by leveraging all aspects of the firm."

Roger Woodman, managing director of General Industrials investment banking, added: "As part of Raymond James, we can continue to differentiate ourselves from other advisors by complementing our industry-focused approach with the extensive capital formation abilities of such a sizeable institution. Our clients will directly benefit from Raymond James' ability to execute private-equity transactions, debt placements and public offerings, as well as other highly complex transactions. We also plan to take advantage of Raymond James' position as a lead underwriter of master limited partnerships, which is highly relevant to our fuel distribution clients."

The newly combined group will continue to provide a full range of investment banking advisory and capital raising solutions to convenience store operators, wholesale fuel and lubricant distributors, mobile refueling companies, c-store distributors and related suppliers, and service providers located throughout North America, the company said.

Senior bankers joining Raymond James include Garfinkel, Woodman and David Corbett, vice president. Equity research analyst Ben Brownlow also joined Raymond James and will continue to cover c-stores and related companies, according to the announcement.