MarketWatch – Gartmore Investment Management, a $45 billion asset manager, agreed on Thursday to be acquired in a management buyout backed by private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC, in a move designed to help expand its hedge-fund business.
The value of the transaction wasn’t disclosed, but media reports have estimated a purchase price of 500 million to 600 million pounds, or roughly $1 billion. It’s expected to close in July.
The deal is the largest management buyout of a fund company in history, based on assets under management, according to Putnam Lovell NBF Securities, an investment bank focused on the financial-services industry.
Gartmore’s hedge-fund business has grown strongly in recent years, partly thanks to the success of AlphaGen Capella, one of the largest single-manager hedge funds in Europe, which is run by Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg.
When Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, the current owner of Gartmore, put the business up for sale, there was concern that Guy and other top hedge-fund managers might leave if they weren’t offered attractive roles in the future of the firm.
