LaBranche & Co. Inc. Q3 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-10-20 12:50:21.0

Tags: Seeking Alpha, LaBranche & Co. Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator instructions) We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Chris Donat with Sandler O'Neill.

Chris Donat - Sandler O'Neill

Good morning, Michael and Jeff. It's Chris Donat here.

Michael LaBranche

Hi, Chris.

Chris Donat - Sandler O'Neill

Hi. First question is can you give us a little more detail on what those senior management changes are to your options market maker?

Michael LaBranche

Well, we've basically -- we have kept all of our traders, by and large. And we are committed to the strategies, and we are -- we've had -- the senior manager we've replaced.

Chris Donat - Sandler O'Neill

Okay. And as you look at your market making businesses, do you view them as three separate businesses or do you have an inclination to start looking at maybe a whole book across--

Michael LaBranche

In the past, we have been somewhat precluded by a Chinese wall to integrated some of the businesses going forward. We are looking into integrating many of those businesses, and one of the reasons why we think that this will be an opportune time to do that is that in the past, with regards to our market making business in options, in ETS, and indexes, we've been in some capacities a specialist.

As of now, we are no longer a specialist at all in any of those businesses. So we think that there's a very good opportunity for us to integrate them. We would like to integrate our institutional brokerage business as much as we can with some of those businesses so that we can get better synergies in many different ways. Right now, we have different silos as a result of the Chinese wall and the old Chinese wall requirements that came with having a former specialist business, which we do not have anymore. So that is something that we are actively pursuing. And we think that we'll be able to aggregate some of those businesses, cut up [ph] cost down, use the capital more efficiently.

Chris Donat - Sandler O'Neill

Okay. That's helpful.

Michael LaBranche

It might take a matter of months to have that take place.

Chris Donat - Sandler O'Neill

Okay. All right. And then, just a little more color on what happened in the past quarter with the options market maker. Do all the -- is all of that business appearing in the principal trading line or you mentioned that it's sort of the cost of doing business. Does some of that appear as--

 

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