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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 personal fairness group has owned for a decade.
Blackstone and Corsair Capital, which acquired First Eagle for $4bn in 2015, have employed Morgan Stanley to steer the sale course of, mentioned 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 mentioned. The enterprise is predicted 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 value 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 variety of native companies together with brewers.
When First Eagle’s founding household escaped Nazi Germany and moved to New York within the late Thirties, they constructed a big presence on Wall Road. The agency is finest often known as 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 personal fairness takeovers of asset managers and unbiased funding advisory teams, which has brought on trade valuations to soar.
Over the previous yr, PE corporations have struck massive offers. CVC is within the strategy of delisting UK asset supervisor Hargreaves Lansdown for about $7bn whereas within the US funding advisers Fisher Investments and Artistic Planning have each offered minority fairness stakes to non-public fairness traders at valuations exceeding $12bn.
First Eagle has grown solely modestly beneath Blackstone and Corsair’s possession, with its belongings climbing about 50 per cent since 2015. Nevertheless it has lately struck acquisitions in personal credit score, together with shopping for specialist traders.
First Eagle mentioned the corporate didn’t touch upon rumours or hypothesis. Blackstone declined to remark. Corsair didn’t instantly reply to emails in search of remark.
