An insurer-backed asset manager is making a nine-figure bet on an ally to asset managers, and the partnership may extend further.

Jeffrey Kent "Jeff" Seeley iM Global Partner Deputy CEO, Head of U.S.

Today Adam Wheeler, co-head of global private finance at Barings, and Philippe Couvrecelle, CEO and founder of iM Global Partner [profile], confirm that Barings is supporting iM Global Partner with a 120-million-pound ($166-million) acquisition facility. The iM Global Partner team expects to use that facility this summer, and the two firms are looking into Barings lending iM Global Partner more money to finance further expansion.

Paris-based iM Global Partner's main strategy is to buy minority stakes in asset managers worldwide and offer them distribution support. They also recently bought a U.S.-based subadvised mutual fund family. Jeff Seeley, deputy CEO of iM Global Partner, is the firm's U.S. chief.

The Barings-iM Global Partner deal comes as Barings, a subsidiary of MassMutual (a U.S. insurance company), is merging its mutual funds with another fund family.

Wheeler praises the iM Global Partner team as "a strong credit opportunity as the platform only invests in conservative and proven partners and therefore shows a strong resilience to absorb market volatility."

"The debt financing is a great addition to the equity arm led by Eurazeo, our principal shareholder, as well as Amundi, IK Investment Partners and Luxempart," Couvrecelle states. "We are on a trajectory to reach $150bn in assets under management by 2030."

As of June 2021, iM Global Partner represented more than $27 billion in AUM. 

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