Arlington Asset Investment

This article is about the REIT formerly known as Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group. For the investment banking firm formerly known as Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., see FBR Capital Markets.
Arlington Asset Investment
Public
Traded as NYSE: AI
Industry Investment management
Founded 1989
Headquarters Arlington, Virginia, United States
Key people
 Eric Billings, Chairman & CEO
Products Real Estate Investment Trust
Revenue IncreaseUS $1.01 Billion (2006)
DecreaseUS $-0.67 Billion (2006)
Number of employees
 579 (2009)
Website www.arlingtonasset.com

Arlington Asset Investment Corp formerly known as Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc. (FBR), is a real estate investment trust headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It was founded in 1989 and had over $1 billion in revenues in 2006.

History

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc. was founded in 1989 by Emmanuel Friedman, Eric Billings, and Russ Ramsey. The firm held its initial public offering in 1997, raising $206 million.[1]

FBR was initially successful investing in the Internet boom of the 1990s-2000s. Ramsey left the company in 2001. Following the early 2000s recession, FBR invested heavily in subprime mortgages and housing until the subprime mortgage crisis.[2] The company announced severe losses related to its underperforming mortgage platform and widespread problems in subprime mortgage lending, which led to a sale of ownership in FBR's subprime subsidiary First NLC Financial Services, Inc in the summer of 2007.

In 2005, the SEC began investigating FBR for insider trading done in 2001. The firm was charged with short selling CompuDyne, a maker of security systems. In 2006 FBR paid $7.8 million to the SEC and $4.5 million to CompuDyne to settle the charges, but did not admit any wrongdoing. Friedman was personally fined $1.2 million, and barred for two years from supervising a brokerage firm. He left FBR in 2005, during the investigation.[3][4][5]

FBR Capital Markets was formed through an equity spin-off from FBR Group in the spring of 2007.[6] The IPO was priced at $72 per share but the stock had traded down considerably at a low of $8.40 as a result of the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis.

In 2009 FBR changed its name to Arlington Asset Investment and divested its ownership of FBR Capitol.[7]

Billings stepped down as CEO in 2014, but remains as executive chairman.[2]

Sponsorship

Arlington Asset Investment sponsored the Phoenix Open PGA golf tournament held in Scottsdale, Arizona from 2004 until 2009.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Heath, Thomas (December 23, 2008). "Last of FBR's Founders to Retire as CEO". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Bhattarai, Abha (June 12, 2014). "FBR co-founder steps down as CEO". Washington Post. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  3. ↑ Westbrook, Jesse; Schmidt, Robert (January 16, 2013). "FBR Founder’s Fund Profits From Big Government Bemoaned by Bacon". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  4. ↑ Hilzenrath, David S.; Hart, Kim (December 21, 2006). "FBR Settles With SEC Over Insider Trading Case". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  5. ↑ O'Hara, Terence (April 5, 2005). "FBR's Friedman Quitting". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Alejandro, Lazo. "Spinoff From FBR Gains 6% In Debut". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2014-11-16.
  7. ↑ Ruiz Switzky, Bryant (June 10, 2011). "FBR Capital Markets changes name — again". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Waste Management taking over FBR Open sponsorship". Phoenix Business Journal. December 9, 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, October 19, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.