Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Hellman & Friedman and GIC have teamed up on the acquisition of Allfunds Bank. Allfunds is a financial technology business, from Intesa Sanpaolo Group, Santander Group, General Atlantic and Warburg Pincus. The deal values Allfunds at GBP 1.8bn.
Allfunds provides technology to asset managers and distributors of mutual funds. Allfunds also maintains a global network of offices across Europe, Asia and Latin America and over Euro 265bn assets under administration globally covering 51,000 funds from 541 fund managers.
Allfunds has growth plans in Europe and Asia and the technology platform falls in line with other Helllman & Friedman investments.
According to reporting in the Financial Times, the Hellman & Friedman/GIC bid was accepted despite a rival bid from Chinese investor group Legend. However, Santander, which is a partial owner of Allfunds was concerned about turning the business over to a Chinese owner. GIC, presumably, will be able to offer similar inroads into the Asian market. Other bidders included Advent International and Permira.
Allfunds already has a comprehensive portfolio of services, but the new cash infusion could give the company enough firepower to consider opportunistic acquisitions. Sources familiar with the transaction noted that simila...................... To view our full article Click here
|