Barclays on Thursday pulled the trigger on the highly anticipated sale of its
iShares ETF business. The UK-headquartered bank inked a deal to sell iShares to
Blue Sparkle LP, a new limited partnership formed by private equity firm
CVC Capital Partners, for $4.4 billion (3 billion pounds). The deal is seen to close in November.
The purchase price represents a multiple of 10.1 times iShares' 2008 EBITDA of 294 million pounds.
The price tag also works out to about 1.3 percent of iShares' end-2008 AUM of 226 billion pounds.
Barclays will provide debt financing of $3.1 billion and retain a 20 percent stake in iShares.
Lee Kranefuss, CEO of the iShares business;
Mike Latham, CEO of U.S. iShares and
Rory Tobin, CEO of iShares Europe, are expected to constitute the core management team following the close of the deal.
Most of iShares' employees are also expected to stay on when the deal closes. At the end of last year, iShares had about 620 employees in 14 countries.
Under the agreement, Barclays may solicit proposals for iShares and other related businesses from third parties until at least June 19.
Blue Sparkle will receive a go-shop break fee of $175 million if Barclays terminates their deal and agrees to a superior transaction.
Jonathan Feuer, CVC's managing partner and global head of financial
institutions group, led the deal for Luxembourg-headquartered CVC. His team members include
Kamil Salame,
who was hired last week as US head of the financial institutions group (see
The MFWire,
04/02/09),
Peter Rutland and
Cameron Breitner.
The deal announcement came nine days after Barclays confirmed that CVC Capital is its preferred bidder for iShares (see
The MFWire, 03/31/09).
iShares' sale is likely to "make banks and insurers with capital issues
look at this transaction and think about what they should be doing,"
Darlene DeRemer, partner and head of the advisory practice at
Grail Partners, told
The MFWire in an interview.
Barclays Capital and
Lazard and Co. advised Barclays on the deal.
Clifford Chance LLP and
Sullivan and Cromwell LLP served as the legal advisers.
"This transaction realises significant value for Barclays," said Barclays group chief executive
John Varley in a news release. "iShares has experienced rapid
growth over the past several years and has reached a point where it can develop
further on a standalone basis. Barclays shareholders will benefit from a reinforcement
of our capital base and an ongoing commercial relationship with iShares."
 
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