UPDATE: Atlanta's Carter Buys Welsh's Local Operations

ORLANDO-Following a predicted national trend of brokerage consolidations, Atlanta-based Carter & Associates-ONCOR International has acquired the Orlando unit of Minneapolis-based Welsh Cos. Inc. in a deal valued at an estimated $25 million, area brokers and lenders familiar with the long-planned marriage tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. The firms will operate under the Carter banner.

Tom Senkbeil, president and chief operating officer at Carter in Atlanta, and Robert J. DeGrilla, senior vice president and managing director of Welsh’s Orlando operations, couldn’t be reached at GlobeSt.com’s publication deadline to confirm or deny the estimated deal’s value.

A prepared statement from Carter, however, states the deal was done to give the Atlanta firm increased regional market share. “It was crucial that we find a company whose synergies closely matched our own ideology,” Senkbeil says in the statement.