SECURITIES

Employees to Buy Kemper’s Brokerage Unit: The Long Grove, Ill., company, which has itself been on the auction block for a year, will sell a majority stake in its securities brokerage firm for $72 million in cash. The money-losing securities unit is the nation’s 10th-largest and is about to return to profitability. Under the proposed deal, Kemper Securities’ employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, would acquire a 55% stake in the brokerage unit, which has about 1,300 investment consultants in 27 states. About 44% of the unit would be spun off to Kemper Corp. stockholders as stock in a new publicly traded company. The final 1% stake would be issued to Kemper Securities’ management in the form of non-voting common stock.