Dyal Capital Partners and Owl Rock Capital Group confirmed that they are in talks regarding a potential merger, according to a joint statement released late Wednesday.
The potential deal was disclosed Wednesday in a Form 8-K filed with the SEC by Altimar Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, which means the newly combined company would be publicly traded should the deal go through.
In the filing, Altimar said it had executed a non-binding letter of intent with Owl Rock Capital and Neuberger Berman Group, which owns Dyal Capital.
"The parties are in exclusive negotiations in connection with the potential business combination, which remains in its preliminary stages," Altimar said in the filing.
In the joint statement, the money management companies said: "The potential combination would bring together two industry-leading investment platforms that provide capital solutions to the alternative asset management industry: Owl Rock's direct lending platform, which provides financing to middle-market companies (most of which are owned or sponsored by alternative asset managers), and Dyal provides capital solutions and strategic support to alternative asset managers."
In fact, Dyal, which buys minority stakes in alternative investment managers, acquired a passive, non-voting minority stake in Owl Rock Capital in November 2019. The terms of the deal and the size of the stake were not disclosed.
"The founders of Owl Rock and Dyal would lead the standalone firm and the investment teams and processes would not change. The Owl Rock and Dyal founders, alongside Neuberger Berman Group ... would own meaningful positions in the combined business," the firms said in their statement.
Neuberger Berman spokesman Alexander Samuelson declined to comment in an email on the potential deal.
In an email, an Owl Rock spokeswoman declined to comment about the potential merger. Owl Rock had $23.7 billion in assets under management in direct-lending strategies as of Sept. 30.
Dyal Capital managed $21.9 billion in aggregate capital commitments to its funds as of Sept. 30, while parent company Neuberger Berman managed $374 billion.
Altimar Acquisition Corp. is an affiliate of HPS Investment Partners, according to the Form S-1 filing for registration of securities with the SEC.
