Ropes & Gray LLP: Investment Management M&A

Investment Management M&A

Our Investment Management M&A practice is built on the foundation of two leading national practices and allows us to deliver clients with efficient deal management. We regularly advise investment advisory firms, private equity firms, public companies and institutional investors on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and securities offerings and other capital-raising activities involving financial services businesses. Our integrated team has a comprehensive understanding of registered funds, private funds, investment advisers, broker dealers, insurance companies and other financial services institutions and the regulatory and litigation challenges faced daily by industry participants. Our depth of industry knowledge, which allows us to formulate creative solutions for the benefit of our clients, is based on our service as lead counsel on a number of complex financial services transactions.

We are consistently recognized as “market leaders” as evidenced by our inclusion in leading industry publications, including:

Our M&A partners consistently ranked in Chambers, Private Equity Analyst, The American Lawyer and The Best Lawyers in America
Our M&A practice ranked nationally as a recommended firm for “Corporate/M&A” by PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook 2010
Our Investment Managements partners consistently ranked in Chambers USA and Legal 500
Our Investment Management practice received top rankings in The American Lawyer’s Corporate Scorecard: #1 in the mutual fund category by new issues or clients’ assets for 12 out of the last 13 years such rankings were published
Our Investment Management practice ranked in the top tier by U.S. News Best Lawyers 2010 “Best Law Firms” for our “Investment Management” practices, among others

The confidence that industry leaders have in us is demonstrated by our leading role in major transactions for them. Our recent Investment Management M&A transactions include:

We represented Ashmore Group in its majority acquisition of Emerging Markets Management.
We represented Matthews International Capital Management in its majority acquisition of Lovell Minnick Partners.
We represented Franklin Resources, Inc. in its strategic investment in Pelagos Capital Management, LLC.
We represented Landmark Partners in its sale of a majority interest to Religare Enterprises Ltd. Management, LLC.
We regularly represent Affiliated Managers Group, a diversified asset management company, with their strategic investments. Recent transactions have included their stock purchase of Fortigent, LLC and their acquisition of the asset management business of Gannett Welsh & Kotler, LLC, an investment management unit of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation.
We represented Bain Capital in its proposed acquisition of Lehman Brothers Holdings asset-management business. Bain Capital proposed to partner with Hellman & Friedman to purchase the Neuberger Berman business, which had been among the biggest business units of Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 and had been selling major businesses since that time.
We represented Ameriprise Financial Inc., one of the leading financial planning, asset management and insurance companies in the U.S., in connection with the acquisition by its subsidiary Riversource Investments of asset management firm J. & W. Seligman & Co.. Seligman managed approximately $18 billion in assets in open- and closed-end funds, hedge funds and institutional accounts.
We have represented State Street Corporation in connection with numerous transaction including the sale of its private asset management business to Charles Schwab, and the recent sale of its joint venture interest in CitiStreet LLC, one of the premier retirement plan and benefit service and administration organizations in the world, to ING Group.
We represented Natixis Global Asset Management and its predecessor entities in their strategic acquisitions. Recent transactions have included product line expansions through the acquisition of the Alpha Simplex Group and Gateway Investment Advisors, as well as venture stakes in emerging asset managers and related technology.

To learn more about our Investment Management M&A practice capabilities, please contact:

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