Ropes & Gray Represents BrightSphere Investment Group and Landmark Partners in the Sale of Landmark Partners to Ares Management

Ropes & Gray represented BrightSphere Investment Group, Inc. (“BrightSphere”) and Landmark Partners, LLC (“Landmark”) in their entry into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Landmark by a subsidiary of Ares Management Corporation. The total transaction is valued at $1.08 billion.   As part of the transaction, Ares will acquire the 60% ownership interest in Landmark held by Brightsphere for $690 million in cash and will acquire the remaining 40% ownership interest in Landmark held by the Landmark management team for $390 million in cash and Ares Operating Group Units.  The transaction was announced on March 31. The press releases are here and here.

Founded in 1989 and acquired by BrightSphere in August of 2016, Landmark has 150 employees across six global offices and specializes in secondary market transactions in private equity, real estate and infrastructure funds and investments.  As of December 31, 2020, Landmark has $18.4 billion in assets under management. BrightSphere is a diversified, global asset management company with approximately $157 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2020.

The Ropes & Gray team that represented BrightSphere was led by private equity partner Matthew Richards (Chicago) and the Ropes & Gray team that represented Landmark was led by private equity partners Adam Leamon (Boston) and William Mone (Boston). The full Ropes & Gray team included tax partner Amanda Holt (Boston), employment, executive compensation & benefits partner Joshua Lichtenstein (New York), mergers & acquisitions partner William Michener (Boston), and asset management partners David Sullivan(Boston) and Eve Ellis (London).