History » CARL MARKS & CO. History

From its beginnings as the nation's premier foreign securities trading business to the multi-faceted merchant bank it is today, Carl Marks & Co. has created value for nearly a century. Now in its fourth generation, the company remains family owned and operated.

1925	Founded by Carl Marks, with about $6,000 of initial capital, as the nation’s first foreign securities trader

1933	Branches into trading foreign bonds as well

1963	Begins to add other investing businesses, starting with venture capital

1963	Starts one of the nation’s first Small Business Investment Corporations (SBICs), CMNY Capital Co., Inc., to make debt and equity investments in small businesses

1967	Diversifies trading business to include domestic securities

1973	Broadens overall investing activities into mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and private placements

1975	Completes one of the first leveraged buyouts (LBOs), starting a trend followed by Wall Street for decades

1983	Begins investing in real estate

1987	Incubates its first distressed investing business, Carl Marks Strategic Investments (CMSI), to invest in underperforming companies. Later, CMSI becomes part of Carl Marks Management Company, Carl Marks’s current opportunistic and special situations credit business

1988	Merges the foreign exchange business with Smith New Court PLC

1989	Creates its first private equity fund, focused on LBOs

1991	Begins Carl Marks Consulting Group (CMCG), a turnaround consulting business

1992	Launches CM Equity Partners, a generalist private equity business that eventually focuses its investments on U.S. Federal services contractors and aerospace & defense

1995	Sells its Smith New Court PLC holdings to Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America Merrill Lynch)

1996	With a nod to its roots, forms Carl Marks Global Value Fund to invest in foreign securities, primarily in emerging markets

1997	Forms a second SBIC and co-invests in another, continuing to provide capital to small businesses

2000	Begins CM Opportunity Fund to specialize in buyouts of small businesses

2001	Creates Carl Marks Capital Advisors (CMCA), offering investment banking services arising from successful turnaround consulting engagements

2006	Merges CMCA and CMCG into Carl Marks Advisory Group, currently called Carl Marks Advisors

2007	Seeds BlueStar CM Life Sciences Focus Fund to invest in public healthcare equities

2007	Begins partnership with Capital Counsel, LLC, an asset manager

2008	Launches Carl Marks Healthcare Partners to provide operational performance improvement and turnaround management support in the healthcare industry. Later, the business becomes part of Carl Marks Advisory Group

2014	Partners with Sand Oak Capital, and then MFG Partners, which makes private equity investments in family-owned companies, particularly industrials

2015	Anchors Stone-Goff Partners, a private equity firm that invests primarily in the consumer and services sectors