Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries said it will launch a $74 billion asset manager and insurance holding company, capitalizing on the investment industry’s push for scale and consolidation.
The new venture by Eldridge will be divided into two entities — an investment arm focused on corporate and real estate credit, general partner solutions, and sports, media and entertainment — and an insurance platform backed by Eldridge Industries’ crown jewel Security Benefit and Everly Life.
Boehly will chair the new entity’s executive committee, Eldridge said in a statement Dec. 5. The deal is expected to close in January . Eldridge will have offices in New York; Greenwich, Conn.; Beverly Hills, Calif.; Chicago; Dallas; Atlanta; Overland Park, Kan.; Des Moines, Iowa; Topeka, Kan.; London; and Abu Dhabi.
In addition to the new office in the United Arab Emirate’s capital, Boehly told Bloomberg that establishing a presence in Saudi Arabia was also in the cards.
“If you look at where the big opportunities are, developing sports and entertainment and infrastructure and media, those are all big opportunities in the region, in particular in Saudi Arabia, because they have so much infrastructure to build,” Boehly said on the sidelines of the Milken Institute summit in Abu Dhabi.
Boehly, whose estimated net worth is $7.4 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, has ownership stakes in the Premier League’s Chelsea FC and Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers.
Asked about sport investment opportunities in the Middle East, Boehly told Bloomberg he saw sports infrastructure as a key focus.
Boehly is known for helping Guggenheim Partners create an asset management unit that now oversees more than $200 billion. He’s renowned for buying complicated credit businesses and pioneering acquisitions of insurance assets in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Bloomberg reported in June that Boehly was planning to create a new asset management firm, and that he was in talks to sell a minority stake to investors, including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family offices.
Asked about a possible stake sale, Boehly said the firm was trying to be strategic and to look for partners “who want to grow with us.”
