In the latest example of blossoming local IPO activity, Imperial Capital Group Inc., a boutique investment bank headquartered in Century City, has filed registration documents to go public.

The firm, founded in 1997 by Chief Executive Jason Reese and President Randall Wooster, intends to raise as much as $150 million through the offering, which will be underwritten by BofA Merrill Lynch, JMP Securities and Imperial Capital. The filing, made late Wednesday, did not say when the offering would take place.

Imperial Capital offers institutional sales and trading services to investors, as well as a range of advisory, restructuring and capital markets services to middle market clients.

In addition to its posh offices at 2000 Avenue of the Stars, the firm has branch offices in San Francisco and New York, as well as recently established outposts in Boston and Houston, and a one-man operation in Whitefish, Mont. Indeed, Imperial Capital has been on a growth spurt recently, adding about two dozen new employees in 2009 to bring its ranks to 162.

According to the prospectus, Imperial Capital has been profitable every year, including year-to-date in 2009. Last year, the firm recorded $89 million in revenue, of which more than 60 percent came from commissions on its institutional sales and trading services. In the first six months of 2009, the firm had revenue of nearly $60 million.

In the filing, the firm said it is going public to increase its profile, obtain capital and attract talent. It also said it intends to grow through expansion of its product offerings, opening new offices, acquiring competitors and expanding outside its core business.

Under the proposed offering, Reese and Wooster would control the company with the majority of the combined voting power of common stock. The filing did not specify how many shares will be issued, at what price or what percentage will be owned by Reese and Wooster.

The filing follows a surge in recent IPO activity in the Los Angeles area. A pair of local real estate investment trusts – PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust in Calabasas and Colony Financial Inc. in Santa Monica – each have gone public in recent months, while fresh-produce company Dole Foods Co., has filed its IPO prospectus.