This week we continue our conversation with Brad Raymond, Head of Investment Banking at Stifel Financial. Stifel provides strategic advisory services globally, as well as raising public and private debt and equity. Clients are served by more than 400 bankers at Stifel and its owned companies including KBW and Miller Buckfire. Second of two parts – View part one.

TLL: Tell us about your healthcare practice.

BR: It’s a very productive area for us. Our healthcare business includes our life sciences, medical technology and healthcare services teams. We are growing across all of these sectors. Historically, the biggest part of our healthcare business has been life sciences, which is mostly biotech. Over the past five years this sector has been driven by rapid advances in science and technology that enable companies to develop effective therapeutics and bring them to market more quickly than in the past. The sector has an insatiable need for capital to fund companies. Money has piled in both from private and public investors. These days, this is the only sector where companies can go public with no revenues and achieve market values in excess of $1 billion. It is also one of the few sectors where companies can go from sub-$100mm valuations to billion dollar valuations overnight. These dynamics make the sector very exciting.

TLL: You haven’t mentioned industrials or business services.

BR: These are relatively smaller for us than FIG, tech, or healthcare. But we’ve made significant hires in these areas over the last few years as well, and it will be a big growth engine. Industrials are tied tightly to the sponsor business. As with tech, we dedicate 15 MDs, though everyone is subsector specialized. In addition, there is an enormous synergistic benefit between our sector groups, as both strategic and financial clients have sought broader opportunities through M&A. For instance, you’ll commonly see a software team work in tandem with healthcare technology when an opportunity is tapping both pools of buyers.

TLL: What about spinoffs or divestures of larger companies?