Victory Capital sparks bidding war for Janus Henderson
Victory Capital has gatecrashed an earlier deal agreed with Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management and General Catalyst to buy asset manager Janus Henderson.
On Thursday, Victory announced that it had bid $57.04 a share for Janus in a transaction that would value the British-American group at $8.6bn. The competing offer comes just weeks after a Trian and a group of investors, led by venture capital group General Catalyst, had agreed to buy the business for $49 a share, valuing it at $7.4bn.
Activist investor Peltz was previously Janus’s biggest shareholder with a 20 per cent stake.
Victory’s surprise move adds impetus to the wave of consolidation in the global asset management sector. Earlier this month, US fund group Nuveen struck a deal to acquire London-based Schroders for £9.9bn.
The proposed deal would give Janus’s shareholders $30 in cash per share, with the remainder paid in Victory Capital stock. The Texas-based asset manager said its plan represents a 16 per cent premium to Trian’s bid. The combined entity would have a total enterprise value of about $16bn and Janus shareholders would own about 38 per cent of the new group.
Victory Capital has dramatically bulked up over the past decade through a series of acquisitions. In 2024, it combined with French asset manager Amundi’s US offshoot, increasing its assets under management by roughly $100bn.
Victory now has $320bn in assets under management. Janus manages about $484bn, meaning a combination would more than double Victory’s size.
Victory Capital has been pursuing a deal with Janus in advance of the investment firm reaching a deal with the Trian-led investor group. It made a $52-a-share cash and stock offer in December. Janus rebuffed the approach because of the strength of the existing deal and certainty of closure, according to people familiar with the matter.
Under the terms of the merger agreement with the Trian-led group, Janus can terminate the deal before June this year if it reaches a superior agreement with another party.