Cleary Gull sets its sights beyond the horizon

During the past year Cleary Gull Reiland & McDevitt Inc. has nearly doubled its number of employees.

Now the investment firm wants to increase its presence around the world.

"We already have a national presence, we just want more of one and an international presence," said Tim Reiland, Cleary Gull's research director.

Cleary Gull has 49 employees 20 hired during the last 12 months. The staff additions have been spread out over all five of the firm's departments: sales, trading, research, investment banking and fixed income, said Michael Cleary, president of Cleary Gull.

The firm's two most recent hires are examples. In early March, Gary I. Hagstrom left Chicago Corp., where he headed institutional trading, to manage the trading desk at Cleary Gull.

Two weeks ago, J. Keith Dunne joined the firm to manage Cleary Gull's Big Ten Stock Report. Dunne was previously a capital goods analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc.

Leg 1 ends here Dunne provides additional fuel to a firm that Reiland and Cleary say is research-driven. They said their focus is on providing thorough company analysis, with the idea that quality research will draw in additional business.

And they believe research is an area that can grow.

"We think a Midwest product is the only one that we can bring to the market," said Cleary, the company president. The firm has plans to sell its research in new ways, Cleary said, declining to elaborate.

Jim Goff, portfolio manager for the Denver-based Janus Enterprise Fund and co-manager of Janus Venture Fund, said he considered Cleary Gull to be a regional firm, but that its size was irrelevant when considering the quality of its research.

"I may talk to a New York fund with 100 analysts that has only one I like," Goff said.

Goff said he gets a "higher hit rate" with Cleary Gull or Baird than with larger Wall Street companies.

Cleary Gull has plenty of Leg 2 ends here room to grow, although there is a limited universe for the type of research Cleary does, said Bill Dutton, portfolio manager of Skyline Special Equities Fund, a product of Mesirow Financial in Chicago.

A potential factor limiting the growth of any regional investment firm is the quality of its trading desk, Dutton said. But Cleary Gull is good at trading, as well as selling and researching companies, he said.

Cleary Gull's corporate finance and investment banking business has been "unbelievably busy," Cleary said. So busy that the firm needs to add more investment bankers. But after that, Cleary and Reiland who believe in controlled growth said they wanted to stop hiring for a while.

"I don't think we need to be huge to have an impact on our identified markets," Cleary said.

Cleary Gull has become known for its aggressiveness and creativity, said longtime customer Vince Martin, president and chief executive officer of Jason Inc.

Leg 3 ends here "They're just very talented in understanding what we're about and then identifying opportunities for us," Martin said.

The firm's corporate finance work for Jason has included private debt placement and identifying two potential acquisitions: Koller Industries, which Jason acquired in November 1993; and Milsco Manufacturing, which Jason acquired in January 1995.

Cleary Gull also has enjoyed some luck along the way since it was founded in 1986.

After Kemper Corp. acquired Blunt Ellis & Loewi in 1983, departments were moved to Chicago, and the Milwaukee firm's local influence waned.

"That was never in our original business plan that we'd lose a major competitor," Cleary said. "But we were able to hire some of their better people."

In October, Dain Bosworth Inc. closed its Milwaukee corporate finance office.

"That's terrific," was Cleary's response.

Copyright 1995
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