As a part of its strategy to acquire global assets in the financial sector, Religare Enterprises Ltd, promoted by Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, today announced yet another transaction by acquiring 55% stake in US-based Landmark Partners, a private equity and real estate fund-of-funds asset manager focused on secondary transactions, for a consideration of $171.5 million.
Only in February this year, Religare made its entry into the US by acquiring a majority stake in US-based Northgate Capital LLC, a private equity and venture capital firm that manages about $3 billion in assets for over 400 institutional and high net worth families and individuals. Unconfirmed reports peg the deal valuations at about $200 million for a 65% stake (10% of the total assets under management).
According to the agreement with Landmark, Religare Enterprises Ltd will acquire a 55% stake in the business of Landmark Partners for a consideration of up to $171.5 million through its wholly owned subsidiary Religare Global Asset Management (RGAM) Inc.
Landmark Partners' entire management team has made long-term commitments to its business as part of this transaction and will retain a significant equity stake in the business. The management team will continue to run the day-to-day operations (without any change) and be responsible for all investment decisions.
"Religare's strategic alliance with Landmark Partners is the next step for us as we continue to build out and expand our global asset management footprint,” said Shachindra Nath, Group CEO, Religare Enterprises Limited.
“We are in the process of creating a multi-discipline affiliate structure for our Global Asset Management business, and are bringing only proven asset managers with differentiating strategies on to our platform and helping our affiliates get access to emerging market alpha and also look at capital introduction from new markets,” he said.
He further said that the company will seek similar partnerships in other asset classes, including both alternatives and traditional assets, in developed and emerging markets.
Landmark Partners, headquartered in Connecticut. US with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and London, manages 27 private equity and real estate secondary funds-of-funds with more than $8.3 billion of committed capital. A pioneer in the private equity and real estate secondaries markets, Landmark was established in 1989 and executed its first significant secondary PE transaction in the same year.
In 1996, Landmark Partners made its entry into the real estate secondary market. With a total of 52 investment professionals and support personnel led by 14 management partners and principals, Landmark Partners possesses the most experienced secondaries investment team in the industry. Landmark's investor base is comprised of a diverse range of US and international institutional investors that include public and private pension plans, insurance companies, foundations, endowments, and family offices.
Jeffries and Religare Capital Markets Limited were the financial advisors to Religare Enterprises Limited in this transaction. Paul, Weiss acted as transaction counsel to Religare, while Ropes & Gray was counsel for Landmark.
Recently Religare Capital Markets (RCML), the investment banking and institutional securities arm of Religare Enterprises, announced the acquisition of the UK operations of Barnard Jacobs Mellet (BJM UK), a highly-rated distribution platform for South African equities in the UK, serving over 100 institutional clients. The business will operate under the Religare brand and will be integrated into RCML’s rapidly expanding emerging markets platform.
As part of its ambitious growth strategy, RCML recently announced its intention to acquire, Central Joint Enterprises (Aviate Global (Asia)), the Hong Kong-based ideas-led research platform. In September, Religare also acquired a 50% stake in leading Sri Lankan Stock broking firm Bartleet Mallory Stock Brokers.