Executives at Martin Currie Investment Management sold almost a quarter of the money manager: 17.43% to private equity firm Crestview Partners; and 7.47% toinvestor and financier Jacob Rothschild through investment vehicles he owns, includingRIT Capital Partners. The balance of the company will continue to be owned by Martin Currie employees.
The deal will enable long-standing Martin Currie directors to sell some of their equity in the firm and younger directors to exercise part of their share options, according to Martin Currie CEO Willie Watt.
“The company has been growing quite quickly, and I was concerned that if we didn’t deal with ownership, we could find it difficult to pass the company between the generations,” he said in an interview.
Martin Currie had £14.4 billion ($28.9 billion) under management as of Aug. 31.
