Bateman Eichler, Hill, Richards Inc.

Stock Brokerage

1931-1992

In the 1970s, L.A.-based brokerage Bateman Eichler, Hill, Richards Inc. ranked as one of the nation’s top-performing underwriters. By the early ’80s, it operated 36 offices in the United States.

Today it’s history.

Bateman Eichler’s roller-coaster history paralleled the ups and downs of the stock market itself, and its ultimate demise offers some insights into the nature of L.A.’s brokerage business.

Driven to the wall by the market downturn in the early ’80s, Bateman was acquired by Kemper Securities Inc., a giant Chicago-based insurance and financial services firm, in 1982. Under terms of the deal, Bateman remained an independent entity while gaining greater access to Kemper’s financial products and client base.

Supported by Kemper, Bateman made somewhat of a comeback in the go-go days of the late ’80s by hiring Richard J. Capalbo, former head of marketing at Drexel Burnham Lambert. As the company’s fortunes rose along with the stock market, offices were established in Seattle, Portland, Ore, and Anchorage, Alaska.

But by 1990, Kemper was again cutting staff. Capalbo also quit that year. The end came July 1, 1992, when Kemper officially folded the remains of the gutted brokerage into its securities wing.

So why couldn’t a brokerage with a good name and a long history survive in the nation’s second largest city? The answer is size.

In an era when major Wall Street brokerages were expanding their regional presence, there was little room for a small, general-purpose firm.

For years, the company had been hurt as key employees jumped ship to join larger firms muscling into the market. In 1977, Bateman successfully sued Paine Webber after the larger firm poached its entire Sacramento office.

And even being part of Kemper didn’t allow Bateman to expand into the rest of the United States because the parent firm already owned regional brokerages in Cleveland, Denver, Houston and Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, the investment banking wing was unable to compete effectively against the Wall Street giants.

“When you are looking for someone to market your company, you don’t think of someone that is local,” said John Anderson, chairman of Topa Equities Ltd. and namesake of the Anderson School at UCLA. “The demands of market require a national, even international ability.”

Jason Booth