The consolidation battle in the asset management world continues unabated. American firm T. Rowe Price has bought credit manager Oak Hill Advisors for USD 4.2 billion in cash and shares. In addition, private equity parties GTCR LLC and Reverence Capital Partners have acquired Wells Fargo Asset Management.
Wells Fargo AM will continue under the name Allspring Global Investments and will be an independent asset manager. Allspring Global Investments has more than $587 billion in assets under management. The company operates from 18 offices worldwide and will be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It employs 1,400 people.
Private equity on the move
GTCR and Reverence Capital are finalising the acquisition of Wells Fargo Asset Management from the financial company Wells Fargo & Co. The new owners indicate they want to invest in the technology platform and distribution network. In addition, they want to expand Allspring’s global presence – it has a Luxembourg presence in Allspring Global Investments Luxembourg S.A., which has branches in Frankfurt and Paris – however, it is not yet established in the Netherlands,.
The management of the company, as well as portfolio managers and employees, will hold a significant portion of Allspring’s shares. There is talk of 20 per cent. The majority stake will be held by GTCR and Reverence Capital. Wells Fargo & Co. will hold a passive equity stake of 9.9 percent, in part because it remains an important customer and distribution partner of Allspring.
Commenting on the company’s launch, Allspring Global Investments’ top executive Joseph A. Sullivan said, “We recognise that investor expectations in today’s world go beyond just delivering alpha. We will continue to focus on delivering exceptional value to clients by enhancing our investment platform and business model. With the strong support of our partners, GTCR and Reverence Capital, we are ready to expand our reach into new markets and opportunities.”
T. Rowe acquires Oak Hill Advisors
Another acquisition in the consolidation battle was announced last week, when T. Rowe Price purchased credit manager Oak Hill Advisors for up to $4.2 billion. For T. Rowe Price - also active in both the Netherlands and Luxembourg - this is the largest acquisition in its existence.
The American asset manager sees growth opportunities in private credit. To this end, it has bought New York-based Oak Hill, which has 53 billion dollars in assets under management. These include retail, distressed, special situations, liquid, structured credit and real estate strategies. T. Rowe Price has about 1,600 billion dollars under management.
According to the terms of the acquisition, $3.3 billion must be paid at closing, approximately 74 per cent in cash and 26 per cent in T. Rowe Price common stock, and up to an additional $900 million in cash if business targets are met.
The high price reflects the high demand for private capital and the competition for deals in the sector. Rob Sharps, president and head of investments at T. Rowe Price, who takes over as chief executive in January, said last week that investors were allocating their money to three areas: passive, ESG and private markets. Passive has no strategic purpose for T. Rowe Price.
Private capital strategies
Oak Hill will be T. Rowe Price’s private markets platform and the two firms plan to expand into other alternative strategies over time. Analysts stressed that T. Rowe Price wants to make a shift from being an active asset manager focused primarily on equities.
The acquisition comes at a time when institutional investors in particular are resorting to private capital strategies. The total sector, which includes areas such as private credit, private equity and infrastructure, grew to $7.4 billion in the United States at the end of 2020 and is expected to reach $13 billion by the end of 2025, Morgan Stanley believes.
So far this year, 160 asset management deals worth $25.3 billion have been concluded globally, according to Dealogic. Last year, there were 208 deals with a total value of $54 billion. Oak Hill will operate as an independent company within T. Rowe Price.
In the Netherlands, the consolidation continues. NN Investment Partners has been acquired by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and it was announced last week that insurer Athora Netherlands is selling its asset manager Actiam to the Dutch-British Cardano Group.