It looks like Munder Capital Management [profile] is staying put after all.

Luisa Beltran of Reuters' peHUB Wire reports that, according to four unnamed sources, the $15.5-billion-AUM, Birmingham, Michigan-based mutual fund shop's private equity backer, Crestivew Partners, has ended the Munder auction and decided to hang onto it for now.

Seven years ago Crestview backed Munder management in a $302-million deal to free Munder, then with $25.1 billion in assets under management, from Comerica. Then in June of this year reports surfaced that Crestview was auctioning off Munder, looking for a price of up to $400-million. In August Reuters reported that private equity platers Advent International, Blackstone Group, Genstar Capital, Lightyear Capital and Thoma Bravo, as well as insurer Pacific Life, were bidding, with Goldman Sachs advising Crestview on the deal. A month later, the wire service added Corsair and Flexpoint Ford to the bidding list, while dropping out Genstar, Lightyear and Pacific Life.

So why did the sale fall through? Citing unnamed sources, peHUB Wire reports that Crestview wanted a higher price multiple, 10 times EBITDA, than the 7 times EBITDA that bidders offered.

"Crestview is going to keep the business for now and recap it," one private equity source told the pub. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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