Titan Value, 2 Stockbrokers Form Holding Company

TUSTIN — Orange County stockbroker Titan Value Equities Group Inc. said it will form a holding company with two San Diego financial concerns that will run all three companies.

The three will keep their identities under the holding company, called Galaxy Capital Corp., and no offices will be closed. But by combining, the companies said, they will be able to slash administrative costs now borne by each.

The new company will control 1,600 brokers in 500 branch offices across the nation, which Galaxy hopes will give it a greater share of the market for over-the-counter stocks.

Unlike brokers at bigger and better-known securities dealers such as Merrill Lynch, the three companies’ brokers are independent contractors instead of employees. The brokers get a bigger share of their commissions but have to provide their own offices.

Appointed president and chief executive officer of the new holding company was Kye Hellmers, director of District 2 of the National Assn. of Securities Dealers Inc., which regulates the over-the-counter market.

Frank L. King, president and CEO of Titan, will be a co-chairman of the holding company. Richard P. Woltman, president and CEO of the two San Diego companies--Sentra Securities Corp. and Spelman & Co. Inc.--will be the other co-chairman.

Fifteen-year-old Titan, the largest of the three companies, has 1,200 brokers in 350 offices and reported sales of $37 million last year. That makes it one of the largest such companies in southern California. The other two had combined 1991 sales of about $18 million.

The holding company will probably be based in San Diego, the companies said in a joint statement.