Allied World Assurance Co. Holdings, a Zug, Switzerland-based insurance company, is buying a minority stake in private debt alternative investment firm Crescent Capital Group and is investing $500 million with Crescent in a diversified credit portfolio, confirmed Bill Mendel, Crescent Capital spokesman.
He declined to give the exact size of Allied World’s stake other than to say it is small. The remainder of Crescent will continue to be employee-owned.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Crescent will manage the $500 million portfolio in a diversified set of credit strategies over several years. Crescent specializes in public and private below-investment-grade assets. Crescent Capital was the leveraged finance and mezzanine investment group of TCW Group until it was spun off on Jan. 3, 2011.
Allied has been on a shopping spree lately. In October, the company acquired a minority stake and invested $500 million with hedge fund manager MatlinPatterson Global Advisors.
In December, Allied bought a minority stake in Aeolus Capital Management, a Bermuda-based asset management company that invests in the property catastrophe reinsurance and retrocession market.
