Another boutique bank going public?

First Greenhill, then Lazard, then Thomas Weisel, and now perhaps JMP Securities will pursue an IPO as a boutique investment bank.

"JMP has grown quickly since it was founded in 2000 by a group of former executives from Montgomery Securities, a boutique that was acquired by Nationsbank in 1997. Revenue reached $94.7 million in 2005, up from $5.6 million in 2000, and profits have grown too, according to Johnson.

"We've grown quickly and are very profitable," he said. "Because of that, an IPO would be sooner than I would have thought a few years ago."

JMP focuses on the so-called middle market of small and midsize companies in the technology, health-care, consumer, real-estate and financial-services industries. The firm does equity research on more than 260 companies and also provides sales and trading and investment-banking advice."