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Blackstone Group has put First Eagle Funding Administration up on the market for greater than $4bn in an try to dump a big stake that the US non-public fairness group has owned for a decade.
Blackstone and Corsair Capital, which acquired First Eagle for $4bn in 2015, have employed Morgan Stanley to guide the sale course of, stated folks briefed on the matter.
The 2 buyout teams are in search of to capitalise on a wave of takeover exercise within the asset administration sector as PE patrons and monetary providers corporations pile into fee-based monetary companies.
First Eagle generates about $500mn of annual earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, the folks stated. The enterprise is anticipated to fetch a valuation of greater than $4bn, they added.
Blackstone and Corsair financed their acquisition with leverage and have pulled dividends from First Eagle, which means a sale worth of greater than $4bn would yield a constructive, however unexceptional, return.
The 161-year-old firm, as soon as referred to as Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Holdings, was based in Dresden to finance a spread of native companies together with brewers.
When First Eagle’s founding household escaped Nazi Germany and moved to New York within the late Nineteen Thirties, they constructed a big presence on Wall Road. The agency is finest often called an early coaching floor for investor George Soros.
In 2007, the Arnhold household offered a minority fairness stake to non-public fairness agency TA Associates and finally renamed the corporate First Eagle. Blackstone and Corsair Capital took management of the corporate in a 2015 deal.
First Eagle’s sale to Blackstone and Corsair was a part of an early surge in non-public fairness takeovers of asset managers and impartial funding advisory teams, which has prompted trade valuations to soar.
Over the previous yr, PE corporations have struck giant offers. CVC is within the technique of delisting UK asset supervisor Hargreaves Lansdown for about $7bn whereas within the US funding advisers Fisher Investments and Inventive Planning have each offered minority fairness stakes to non-public fairness buyers at valuations exceeding $12bn.
First Eagle has grown solely modestly underneath Blackstone and Corsair’s possession, with its property climbing about 50 per cent since 2015. However it has just lately struck acquisitions in non-public credit score, together with shopping for specialist buyers.
First Eagle stated the corporate didn’t touch upon rumours or hypothesis. Blackstone declined to remark. Corsair didn’t instantly reply to emails in search of remark.
