Banking & Finance

Milwaukee-based Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. held an initial public offering this morning with shares priced at $30 on the New York Stock Exchange. The share price quickly rose to $36.

Glendale-based Braeger Auto Finance Group LLC is providing financing to automotive dealers focusing on low-income and minority consumers who do not qualify for traditional auto financing.

The Wisconsin economy is expanding at a moderate pace, but has struggled to gather any sustained momentum given cooling factory activity, according to the State Monitor report released by BMO Capital Markets Economics.

Waterstone Mortgage Corp. is expanding into the greater Milwaukee area with a new office in West Allis.

HY Connect, an independent marketing and communications firm with offices in Milwaukee and Chicago, has acquired lonelybrand, a digital marketing agency operating in Chicago.

Dan Blake, project manager for a California electronic medical records installation at Epic Systems, will leave his post and join the Wisconsin Technology Council as the director of its Wisconsin Angel Network in mid-March.

Milwaukee-based MGIC Investment Corp., the nation's largest private mortgage insurer, reported a fourth quarter net loss of $386.7 million, compared with a net loss of $135.3 million in the fourth quarter for fiscal 2011.

TruStone Financial Federal Credit Union of Plymouth, Minn. announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Ladish Community Credit Union (LCCU) of Cudahy.
The boards of directors of both organizations unanimously approved a merger of the two credit unions.

Lawmakers in Washington have done what previously seemed unthinkable: They have allowed sequestration to mindlessly cut spending across the board rather than agree to a coherent deficit-reduction plan.

Cleary Gull Advisors in Milwaukee has hired Brady Endl and promoted Charles Batchelor and Mike Peters.