Commerzbank to Sell Jupiter Fund Unit for $1.45 Billion

Commerzbank has finally reached an agreement to sell its Jupiter fund division to the Jupiter management team and a handful of executives, as well as private equity firm TA Associates for $1.4 billion, five years after first seeking a buying, Bloomberg reports. Commerzbank didn’t reveal the purchase amounts by Jupiter or TA Associates.

One of the Jupiter executives making the purchase is its Chief Executive Officer Edward Bonham Carter.

The sale will net Commerzbank $399 million.

Jupiter was founded in 1985, employs 450 and has $37.6 billion in assets.

Private equity firms are keenly interested in asset managers and “are being very aggressive and driving up [their] prices,” said Ben Phillips, a managing director at Putnam Lovell NBF Securities.

“Partnering with TA Associates, who have considerable experience in the asset management sector, now creates the right structure for the next state of our growth,” Bonham Carter said.

Once the purchase is complete, Bonham Carter will assume full oversight of the firm, becoming executive deputy chairman.