Close Brothers Group
Encyclopedia
Close Brothers Group plc is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 specialist financial services group based in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

. The company makes loans, trades securities and provides advice and investment management solutions to a wide range of clients.

Close Brothers’ Banking division provides specialist lending to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals across a diverse range of asset classes, and also offers deposit taking services.

The Securities division provides trading services to retail brokers and institutions principally through Winterflood, a leading market-maker in the UK.

The Asset Management division provides a full range of advice, investment management
Investment management
Investment management is the professional management of various securities and assets in order to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors...

 and self directed services to private, institutional and corporate clients and professional advisers.

Close Brothers was established in 1878 and today employs over 2,500 people, principally in the UK. Close Brothers Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

 and is a member of the FTSE 250.

History

Close Brothers was founded in 1878 by William Brooks Close
William Brooks Close
William Brooks Close was the founder of Close Brothers Group, one the United Kingdom's oldest merchant banks.-Career:...

 who initially provided farm mortgages in Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 and financed Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

's first railway the White Pass and Yukon Route
White Pass and Yukon Route
The White Pass and Yukon Route is a Canadian and U.S. Class II narrow gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railroad. Equipment, freight and passengers are ferried by ship through the...

.

In the 1980’s the company began a phase of significant expansion through the acquisition of a large number of specialist businesses which included Winterflood Securities in 1993 and Rea Brothers in 1999 . The Banking Division meanwhile was built up via a series of smaller acquisitions and start-up businesses.

The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984 and today ranks among the top 200 listed companies in the UK.

External links

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