Sun Life Financial Inc. plans to acquire a 51% stake in independent U.S. retail distribution firm Advisors Asset Management Inc. for $214 million.
Sun Life will make the acquisition through SLC Management, its institutional fixed-income and alternatives asset manager, and AAM will become the U.S. retail distribution arm of SLC.
The transaction price is subject to customary adjustments with a put/call option to acquire the remaining 49% stake beginning in 2028, according to a Thursday news release.
Sun Life has also committed to invest up to $400 million to launch SLC Management alternative investment products for the U.S. retail market to be distributed by AAM.
"We've seen a sustained increase in demand for alternatives from the high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth market as they look to add new sources of yield and total return," said Steve Peacher, president of SLC Management, in the release. "We've been looking to enter into the retail distribution segment for some time now."
Based in Monument, Colo., AAM provides a range of services and products to financial advisers at wirehouses, registered investment advisers and independent broker-dealers, the release noted.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
The transaction will also be "strategic" for AAM, as it plans to "expand its product roster to include a range of alternative products in commercial real estate, private credit and infrastructure," the release added.
Toronto-based Sun Life, which provides asset management, wealth and other products to individual and institutional clients, had total assets under management of C$1.26 trillion ($978 billion) as of June 30,.
Based in Wellesley, Mass., SLC Management had assets under management of $260 billion as of June 30.
AAM has $3.8 billion in assets under management representing AAM's proprietary separately managed account, mutual fund and ETF assets, the release noted.
"AAM does not individually manage any institutional money," a spokesman for AAM added by email.
AAM also has $6.1 billion in unit investment trust assets under supervision, as well as $31.5 billion in assets under administration that represents the non-proprietary assets for which AAM provides various levels of service, but not management, according to the release.
