Carlyle, Large Money Managers Most Likely Bidders For AXA PE--UPDATED
Today's big news is that AXA has put its private equity fund manager up for sale. Credit Suisse is advising on the sale, according to my coworkers at Thomson Reuters. AXA PE could be valued at roughly 500 million Euros or $672 million, Bloomberg News says. Sky News, which first reported the sale, says AXA PE could fetch $1.5 billion. Paris-based AXA PE manages roughly $28 billion of assets. The unit is part of AXA Investment Managers. Who would be interested? The most likely buyer is the Carlyle Group which inked a similar deal earlier this year, sources say. Washington D.C.-based Carlyle agreed to buy a 60% stake in AlpInvest Partners, a fund of fund firm that also makes direct investments, earlier this year. AlpInvest had 32.3 billion Euros (US$43.3 billion) in assets at the time. Harbourvest Partners and Grosvenor Capital Management had reportedly bid for AlpInvest but lost, according to press reports.
