Newly listed Tikehau Capital hunts for ‘opportunistic’ deals
Parisian asset manager’s shares start trading on Tuesday
Tikehau Capital, the European asset manager, is on the hunt for “opportunistic” acquisitions now that it has listed on Euronext Paris through a reverse merger, its founders told the Financial Times as its shares were due to start trading on Tuesday.
Tikehau, which is named after a Pacific coral atoll in French Polynesia, has roughly €10bn assets under management and it invests in private equity, and debt and liquid strategies. The Paris-based company has offered to buy shares in Salvepar, a listed investment vehicle, in return for shares in the newly listed Tikehau Capital.
Last November, Tikehau purchased an 80 per cent stake in the manager of IREIT Global, an investment trust which invests in a portfolio of income-generating real estate in Europe. It also signed a deal last year to manage Lyxor’s investments in its European debt funds.
“Last year we already bought two companies [in the asset management sector] and being listed will give us the currency to do more. It gives us a way to effectively acquire businesses and portfolios,” said Mathieu Chabran, who co-founded the firm in 2004 with Antoine Flamarion.
Tikehau’s ambitions are part of a wider consolidation in the asset management industry, which is under pressure to cut costs and boost performance, according to the Tikehau founders, who worked at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, respectively.
Some notable deals include the just-announced £3.8bn acquisition of Aberdeen Asset Management by Standard Life, Ares Capital’s purchase of American Capital for $3bn, and Janus Capital Group and Henderson Group’s merged $300bn assets under management.
Tikehau’s main UK competitor is Intermediate Capital Group and it numbers Jean-Pierre Mustier — chief executive of UniCredit — among its former employees.
Mr Flamarion said the listing would help expand Tikehau’s reach globally. He said: “The company wants to grow and develop outside France and Europe and so there comes a time we consider being listed will probably get more visibility for the business.”
Mr Chabran said Tikehau planned to be selective as it looks for deals because of wider worries of assets hitting the market at record prices. He added: “We will remain extremely opportunistic in that respect. We are not saying that we are going to be buying everything that arises.”