banking founded 1933 founders w.r. stephens jackson t. stephens headquarters 111 center street little rock arkansas number of employees 700 website www.stephens.com stephens inc. headquarters in downtown little rock . headquartered in little rock arkansas stephens inc. is a privately held independent financial services firm . 1 as one of the largest privately owned investment banks in the country stephens has 25 offices worldwide and employs more than 700 people . 2 contents 1 founding and early history 2 wal mart 3 superdome 4 worthen bank 5 1986 2000 6 2001 present 7 businesses 8 references 9 external links founding and early history edit in 1933 witt stephens founded w.r. stephens investments to trade arkansas highway bonds which at the time were selling for as low as pennies on the dollar . 3 by the time the bonds paid off at par in the early 1940s stephens had gained a reputation for municipal bond expertise and providing sound financial counseling . 3 in 1946 upon graduation from the u.s. naval academy jackson t. jack stephens joined his brother and with a handshake the two brothers formed stephens inc. and a partnership that lasted more than 45 years . 3 4 the two brothers quickly began a series of acquisitions that would become a catalyst for the firm s growth and future . in 1945 stephens purchased arkansas oklahoma gas company in fort smith arkansas and in 1953 acquired what is now stephens production an independent oil and gas exploration company . 4 in 1954 they purchased a controlling interest in the arkansas louisiana gas company . 4 in 1948 stephens sold sheridan telephone exchange to allied telephone company which later became alltel corporation thus beginning a decades long relationship that in part continues today . 3 4 in 1956 jack stephens was named president and ceo of stephens inc. and witt left the firm to become president and chairman of arkansas louisiana gas company while both retained their 50 50 share of stephens inc. witt returned to stephens in the early 1970s . 3 4 jack began to grow stephens by providing private equity to many young growing companies much in the way of the british merchant bank investing model predating by decades the private equity endeavors of wall street firms . 4 jack s acumen as an investor was combined in remarkable fashion with his ability to form enduring personal relationships with his partners . 5 several generations of companies and business leaders came to know jack as not only a smart investment banker but as a loyal and reliable friend as well . 5 jack s influence grew well beyond arkansas to the boardrooms of corporate america and to the halls of washington d.c. ; his opinions were constantly sought by investors ceos and politicians . 6 many of stephens private investments were quite successful . in the late 1960s anticipating the coming revolution in bank data processing jack stephens deployed excess computing capacity at union life insurance company which was owned by him and his family . 3 with 400 000 in start up capital invested he created systematics which would later become a leader in the bank data processing industry . 4 systematics was eventually acquired by alltel corporation and became alltel information services . ais was later acquired by fidelity national information systems . 3 4 wal mart edit in 1970 stephens inc. along with white weld & co. raised 4.95 million in an ipo for a small arkansas based discount retailer wal mart stores inc. owned by sam walton and his family . 4 the capital and subsequently raised capital helped to fund wal mart s rise from 32 million in sales to the largest retailer in the world . 4 superdome edit in 1971 stephens inc. together with first national bank of commerce underwrote 113 million in tax exempt bonds to help build the louisiana superdome . 4 at that time this was among the largest single tax exempt bond issues in history and wall street had turned it down . 3 worthen bank edit in 1983 the stephens family invested in worthen banking corporation which was headquartered in little rock arkansas . 4 in 1985 worthen s capital was wiped out by the bankruptcy of bevil bressler & schulman . 3 4 a rights offering led by jack stephens was implemented allowing shareholders to provide the funds necessary to revitalize the bank and keep it solvent . 4 in 1994 worthen was sold to boatmen s bancshares and two years later boatmen s was sold to nationsbank which in turn merged into bank of america . 4 1986 2000 edit in 1986 warren stephens jack s son was named chief executive officer of stephens inc. 3 in 1989 stephens advised tyson foods in its acquisition of holly farms resulting in a 1.5 billion hostile takeover . 4 in 1992 stephens invested in viking range corporation providing the growth capital needed to seriously expand the company into a leading national brand . 3 in 1993 stephens purchased donrey media renaming it stephens media group . when sold in 2015 stephens media group s properties include the las vegas review journal and daily and weekly papers . 3 4 2001 present edit in 2006 warren stephens acquired 100 % of stephens inc. 3 4 a little over a year later the global economic crisis triggered by the meltdown of the housing markets severely impacted financial markets and posed a grave threat to all financial institutions . having avoided the over leveraging that brought down other investment firms stephens remained sound and continued to grow during this period . 3 4 since its acquisition by warren stephens inc. has grown substantially . the public finance department has experienced a 47 % growth the private client group has grown 66 % the research department has experienced a 71 % growth and investment banking has grown 95 % . stephens insurance an affiliate of stephens inc. has grown more than six times since the 2006 acquisition . 4 in 2001 huntingdon life sciences moved its headquarters to the united states incorporating as life sciences research lsr and secured a 15 million loan from investment bank stephens inc its largest shareholder . stephens private equity group known as stephens capital partners continued to find excellent opportunities in the 2000s as well . three of their investments include the following in 2001 stephens invested in hotchkis & wiley a los angeles based value oriented investment management firm . 3 h & w currently has approximately 21 billion under management . 7 in 2007 stephens invested in sexing technologies a worldwide leader in sexed semen and embryo production in the livestock industry . st is well known around the globe as one of the top sources for assistance in locating and exporting quality semen embryos and live cattle from the united states . 8 in 2010 stephens helped to create halifax media . based in daytona fl . halifax owns and operates 33 newspapers primarily in the southeast . 9 in february 2015 stephens media llc was sold to new media investment group of new york for 102.5 million in cash . the sale included eight daily newspapers and 65 weekly publications in seven states . 10 businesses edit the stephens building at night . it is one of the tallest in little rock . private client group capital markets public finance investment banking research capital management insurance and mutual fund services references edit welcome to stephens . office locations . a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o about stephens inc. . a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t stephens inc. . encyclopedia of arkansas . a b sheehan jack . jack stephens a master gentleman . golf world . retrieved 2013 12 26 . funeral for stephens set for wednesday . arkansas business . the firm . hotchkis & wiley . sexing . about halifax media group . halifax media group . review journal parent stephens media to be sold to new media . las vegas review journal . external links edit stephens inc. official website arkansas business arkansas business encyclopedia of arkansas history & culture retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title stephens inc. & oldid 738420048 categories investment bankscompanies based in little rock arkansascompanies based in arkansas navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 8 september 2016 at 21 13 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit 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