Northill Capital agreed to acquire a majority stake in global equities manager Longview Partners, said Jon Little, partner at Northill.
Northill’s investment in Longview represents about 55% of Longview’s equity, according to a news release by Northill. Longview manages $19.5 billion of assets. A Northill spokeswoman said further details were not disclosed.
Northill will buy out 100% of the shares of Keith McDermott, CEO and co-founder of Longview Partners, who will retire when the deal is completed, expected in the third quarter but subject to approval by the U.K. regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority. The remainder of the equity will be acquired from shareholders including Ramzi Rishani, chief investment officer and co-founder of Longview, and from other managing partners, Mr. Little said. Aside from Mr. McDermott’s retirement, the rest of the Longview staff will stay with the firm, he said.
Following the deal, Mr. Rishani and Marina Lund, a partner and head of client services and business development at Longview, will become co-CEOs of the firm. Mr. Rishani also retains his role as chief investment officer. Longview’s investment process will not change, and the firm will retain day-to-day operational control.
Northill has stakes in five money manager firms, representing a total of about $30 billion of assets under management, including Longview. The firm is looking to acquire more stakes but has limited itself to a total of 10 of these deals.
It is already on the lookout for its next target. “We wouldn’t buy another manager of something we already have — this is a good global equities manager, so we don’t want another,” Mr. Little said in a telephone interview. “We don’t have a credit manager, a global emerging markets manager, a European equities manager. … We are very keen on non-correlated (managers), too. We look at areas like infrastructure, where it is genuinely non-correlated, (investments) that (have) nothing to do with the bond or stock markets.”
“We have always got conversations ongoing,” he said. “We find people we like, spend time scouring the market or talking to people, (and these deals) can take between six months and three years (to complete). We have various conversations open with people who might soon need somebody like us — someone maybe leaving to retire.”