Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin

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Houlihan Lokey

Type	Subsidiary of ORIX USA
Founded	Los Angeles, CA (1970)
Headquarters	Los Angeles, CA
Industry	Investment services
Products	Financial Services Investment Banking
Website	www.HL.com

Houlihan Lokey is a Los Angeles-headquartered investment bank that advises middle-market and large public and private companies. Its main service lines include mergers and acquisitions, financial opinions and advisory services, and financial restructuring.^[1]

[edit] History

Houlihan Lokey was founded in 1970 to offer general business advisory services initially to privately held companies. The 1974 passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act launched the firm’s valuation business by creating demand for independent valuations of private businesses, particularly those that had formed employee stock ownership programs.^[2]

In the mid-1980s, Houlihan Lokey established an investment banking division to provide other corporate finance products, including M&A advisory services and financing. By 1987, management concluded that many of the leveraged transactions completed earlier in the decade were potentially overleveraged and that a market was developing for bankruptcy and distressed M&A advice. At that time, Houlihan Lokey began assembling its financial restructuring group.^[3]

Houlihan Lokey opened eight offices across the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s as it expanded. In 2001, Houlihan Lokey launched its first non-U.S. office by expanding into London. The firm opened a Paris office in 2005 and a Frankfurt office in 2006. It also expanded its industry group platform and private equity coverage program in keeping with investment banking trends.^[4]

In 2006, Houlihan Lokey agreed to merge with ORIX USA, the U.S. corporate lending operations of ORIX Corp. of Japan, to address the growing international demand for middle-market investment banking services. Houlihan Lokey opened offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo in 2007.^[2] The firm's 14th office opened in Beijing in 2008.

Houlihan Lokey consistently ranks among the top 10 U.S. M&A advisors, as tracked by research firm Thomson Financial. The firm has led Mergers & Acquisitions Journal’s annual M&A fairness opinion advisory rankings for the past seven years. Houlihan Lokey was named International Financing Review's European Restructuring House in 2006 and has advised the creditors’ committees in three of the largest U.S. bankruptcies – Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and Conseco Inc.^[2]

Buyouts Magazine named Houlihan Lokey the 2005 Middle-Market Investment Bank of the Year, recognizing the firm’s "combination of organic growth initiatives and a merger-style partnership".^[4]

CFOs, Controllers, and Treasurers faced with the troubled 2008 Auction Rate Security market will address value reporting concerns of regulators on their balance sheets with objective third-party valuations and opinions rendered by the valuation practice.

Houlihan Lokey industry group bankers focus on sectors that include: Aerospace, Defense and Governement Services; Industrial (Automotive, Chemicals, Industrial & Environmental Technologies, Plastics & Packaging, Metals); Business Services; Consumer Products, Retail & Food; Global Energy; Infrastructure Services & Materials (Engineering, Construction, Building Products); Financial Institutions; Healthcare; Media, Sports & Entertainment; Real Estate, Lodging & Leisure; Technology; Telecommunications; and Transportation & Logistics.