A Thriving Financial Services M&A Market: Dechert’s 2021 Highlights

Global markets saw significant growth in 2021, much of which came as the financial services industry experienced substantial consolidation and diversification. With available capital at all-time highs, interest rates remaining low and the need for diversification on the rise, financial services deal activity appears unrelenting.

“This year has been great from a production standpoint. While the usual players were keen to make moves in this optimum deal environment, we’ve also seen new entrants into the financial services M&A market looking to add to their offerings by taking advantage of ideal market conditions,” said partner Michael Darby who focuses his practice on financial services M&A.

Despite such elevated deal activity, Dechert’s financial services M&A practice continued to be at the forefront of the industry, working with clients throughout various sub-sectors and jurisdictions to complete their most complex transactions. This included representing T. Rowe Price in its US$4.2 billion acquisition of Oak Hill Advisors, a preeminent credit manager.

“The T. Rowe transaction exemplifies the expertise Dechert has within its financial services M&A practice. From working out deal terms to regulatory and tax matters specific to the financial services industry, we find creative solutions to help our clients navigate through some of their most complex matters,” said partner Ken Young who advised on the T. Rowe Price deal. “This transaction demonstrated the kind of collaborative effort needed to get one of the most high-profile asset management deals of the year done.”

Dechert’s expertise in financial services M&A has been noted by leading industry publications including:

• The Deal, which honored Dechert as the “Financial Services Law Firm of the Year” for the mid-market transactions segment for the second year in a row;
• For the third consecutive year, Dechert was named as “the law firm that provides the best service to European and U.S. CLO managers” in the 2021 Creditflux CLO Census;
• Dechert was also recognized for the second year running as a leader in the secondaries market in Secondaries Investor’s annual overview; and
• For the second consecutive year, Dechert was ranked among the top legal advisors for total number of PE deals advised on in financial services sector by PitchBook (as of Q3 2021 reporting available at time of publishing).

In 2021, Dechert completed more than 35 deals in the financial services industry totaling approximately US$67 billion. Highlights from the year include representing:

• Bank Audi in the sale of its Egyptian subsidiary, Bank Audi SAE, to First Abu Dhabi Bank;
• Douglass Winthrop in the sale of minority equity interest to Kudu Investment;
• GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, in connection with its multi-billion dollar majority stake in the retirement and college savings provider Ascensus;
• GIC in connection with its US$7.3 billion combination of Alight Solutions, a benefits administration and cloud-based human resource and financial solutions providers, with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp.;
• J.P. Morgan in its acquisition of OpenInvest, a leading financial technology company that helps financial professionals customize and report on values-based investments;
• J.P. Morgan in its acquisition of Campbell Global, a forest management and timberland investing company;
• Nordic Capital in the €2.143 billion sale of Itiviti, a leading provider of trading technology and services to financial institutions worldwide, to Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.;
• Nordic Capital in connection with its investment in Duco Technology Limited, a provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions in the cloud to Financial Services, Insurance and FinTech companies;
• PFM in its sale of PFM Asset Management to U.S. Bancorp Asset Management, Inc.;
• Ping An Overseas Holdings and its subsidiaries, the main offshore investment and asset management platform of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd., in closing the world’s largest private credit secondaries transaction with Coller Capital and a large Asian financial institution;
• The Special Committee to SLR Senior Investment Corp. in its pending merger with SLR Investment Corp.;
• T. Rowe Price Group, a global investment management organization with US$1.61 trillion in assets under management, in its US$4.2 billion acquisition of alternative investment firm Oak Hill Advisors.

Please see the Financial Services M&A 2021 Highlights brochure for an in-depth look at last year’s notable body of work.

As a preeminent financial services M&A legal advisor, Dechert’s deep bench of internationally recognized M&A and asset management lawyers can assist clients with full-service advice on all aspects of a transaction. From public M&A transactions to minority investments, clients rely on Dechert to provide a timely and efficient resolution for their corporate needs.