The money management business gained scale in January with the acquisition from Toronto-based BMO Financial of Miami-based Taplin Canida & Habicht.
Like Taplin, now branded as Loop Capital Asset Management, Smith Graham specializes in fixed-income investments. Among its specialties is managing clients' needs to park cash in short-term vehicles that generate returns.
"Asset management is a strategic growth engine for Loop, and this transaction increases our scale while also enhancing the fixed-income solutions, particularly in the area of liquidity solutions," Loop Capital CEO Jim Reynolds said in a release.
Terms weren't disclosed.
Loop Capital is seeking more asset-management deals and views the market volatility in 2022 as an opportunity.
In an interview, Reynolds said he's interested in adding to the company's bond management capabilities. "We're definitely adding onto those," he said.
But Loop's ambitions ultimately include offering emerging markets stock and debt management, as well as high-yield debt investment, he said.
In addition, Loop and Magic Johnson, which have invested all of a $1 billion infrastructure fund they raised in 2016, are in the middle of raising another $1.5 billion for a new round of deals.
So far, Loop has been able to finance the cash portion of its deals with internal resources, including the cash the company brought in through the sale of a minority stake to Canadian bank CIBC last year.
But Reynolds still is intent on taking Loop Capital public. This year's market volatility has made initial public offerings extremely difficult, but Reynolds is hopeful to get an IPO done in the second half of 2023.
"That would give us a currency to be acquisitive," he said.
