Sykes sells investment firm to Ameriprise

TAMPA -- Ameriprise Financial has acquired an investment advisory firm founded by John Sykes, one of Tampa's most prominent corporate leaders.

JHS Capital Advisors, bearing the initials of businessman John H. Sykes, will join the nationwide network of 10,000 financial advisers that make up the Minneapolis-based company.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for our advisers to be affiliated with the stature, stability and national recognition of Ameriprise,” JHS president and CEO Scott Bendert says, in a release. “Ameriprise offers our advisers considerable career growth opportunities and expanded capabilities to enhance the client experience.”

JHS was founded in 2009, and built a team of 150 financial advisers operating across the country. The firm generated more than $38 million in revenue in 2014, and had retail assets totaling $4.1 billion.

Despite founding the company, Sykes had kept his distance from day-to-day operations since he's not a licensed broker. Instead, he worked to assemble a team that included brokers from the now-defunct GunnAllen Financial Inc., where Sykes was chairman.

“It's a matter of making sure you've got the right people on the bus, and the right platform,” Sykes told the Business Observer in 2010. “We believe we have assembled the best team to start us in that direction.”

Ameriprise, which trades on the NYSE using the symbol AMP, reported a net profit of $381 million in 2014 on revenue of $12.3 billion, compared to a $141 million profit on $11.2 billion in revenue the year before.

Sykes founded corporate technical support and customer service company Sykes Enterprises Inc., which last year generated revenue of $1.3 billion, according to public filings. The company's name tops Rivergate Tower in downtown Tampa, and Sykes' name appears at nearby University of Tampa, where the school of business is named after him.

The acquisition is expected to close this fall.