BlackRock Inc. headquarters in New York on June 11, 2018. Photo: Bess Adler/Bloomberg

The $875 million deal struck this week between BlackRock and Authentic Brands Group that made BlackRock the largest shareholder in the brand development company was the first purchase made by BlackRock’s new Long Term Private Capital (LTPC) group.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, led by New York-based M&A partner Kathryn King Sudol and Houston-based M&A partner Christopher May, advised BlackRock on the deal. 

Latham & Watkins represented Leonard Green & Partners and Authentic Brands Group with a team led by New York-based global vice chair of corporate Paul Kukish, associates Michael Vardanian, Lydia Lee, and Yana Izrailov; New York-based benefits and compensation partner Austin Ozawa and associate Leah Segall and Chicago-based tax partner Joseph Kronsnoble and associate Chris Ohlgart.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison advised General Atlantic, formerly the second-largest shareholder in ABG. The team was led by New York-based M&A partners Matthew Abbott and Neil Goldman and D.C.-based counsel Ji Lu.

BofA Merrill Lynch acted as the exclusive financial adviser to LTPC.

Authentic Brands Group, founded in 2010, curates and manages brands such as Frye, Juicy Couture and Aeropostale. The company was in the news recently for its acquisition of media brand Sports Illustrated from previous owner Meredith Corp.

BlackRock, which grew from an offshoot by private-equity firm Blackstone Group, is the largest money manager in the world with over $6 trillion in managed assets. The company is now hoping to enter the PE arena via the LTPC fund.

BlackRock has not had much success in creating its own fund. In a 2011 venture, it created a fund to take equity in smaller companies. That fund ultimately closed in 2013 after failing to hit fundraising goals.

The goal of the new fund, formed in 2017, is to lock in investors for longer periods as well as diversify BlackRock’s financial products offering, according to multiple press reports. As of now, according to the Wall Street Journal, exchange-traded and index funds make up about 66% of the company’s assets and were responsible for 40% of its profit in 2018. This makes BlackRock susceptible to shifting investor sentiment.

The LTPC fund would allow BlackRock to have control over when dividends are paid, letting the fund take longer-term positions in companies without having scheduled payouts to investors.

That approach has made some investors nervous, and the fund missed an internal goal of $12 billion to $18 billion raised by the end of 2018, according to The Wall Street Journal. The last disclosure the firm made showed that it had raised about $2.75 billion.

Due to the uncertainty about when they would be paid back, several potential investors have turned the fund down even though it charges lower fees (1% and 10% of profits) than other similar funds. (Industry standard is around 2% and 20% of profits, according to a report by Preqin.)

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that “a major Chinese sovereign-wealth fund and the state investor for Alaska’s oil wealth passed” on the fund and that other potential investors were wary about the payment schedule and the fact that BlackRock had yet to put together a full team to manage the fund. The company has since added 17 people to said team, according to the Journal.

In other deals:

Salesforce buys ClickSoftware (Francisco Partners)

Consolidation in the software industry is nothing new. In fact, it’s expected. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that CRM software juggernaut Salesforce (#240 in the Fortune 500) gobbled up field service management company ClickSoftware from Francisco Partners for $1.4 billion. Francisco, a tech-focused PE firm, took ClickSoftware private in 2015 in a $438 million deal. Founded in 1997, ClickSoftware boasts clients such as Bosch, Deutsche Telekom and Unisys.

Shearman & Sterling for Salesforce/Paul Hastings for ClickSoftware (Francisco Partners)

BC Partners/Advanced Software (Vista Equity Partners)

International investment firm BC Partners has purchased a 50% stake in the U.K.’s third-largest software company, Advanced Software, from U.S.-based Vista Equity Partners for $2.4 billion. Vista acquired Advanced, which focuses on business software and SaaS products, in 2015. Advanced has been busy advancing their own business as well, having made six acquisitions and hiring over 900 additional employees since the 2015 sale. 

Kirkland & Ellis and Dickson Minto for BC Partners/Travers Smith for Advanced Software (Vista Equity Partners)

BC Partners/Presidio

Busy week for BC Partners. The firm bought New York-based IT solutions provider Presidio for $2.1 billion, a 21.3% premium over the company’s closing stock price of $13.19 from Aug. 13. As such, Presidio stockholders will receive $16 in cash for each share of Presidio common stock they own.

Kirkland & Ellis for BC Partners/Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for Presidio

CIT Group (CIT Bank)/Mutual of Omaha (Mutual of Omaha Bank)

CIT Group subsidiary CIT Bank is buying Mutual of Omaha Bank, whose parent company is Mutual of Omaha, for $1 billion. The deal is part of CIT Bank’s overall strategy of focusing on servicing small and medium-sized businesses.

Sullivan & Cromwell for CIT Group (CIT Bank)/Squire Patton Boggs for Mutual of Omaha (Mutual of Omaha Bank)

Boxwood Merger Corp./Atlas Intermediate Holdings

Boxwood Merger Corp. may be counting on infrastructure renewal in the United States. Boxwood, described in a press release as a “special acquisition company,” has purchased Atlas Intermediate Holdings as an indirect subsidiary for $759 million. The plan is to rename Atlas as Atlas Technical Consultants and have it listed on the Nasdaq under “ATCX.” Atlas specializes in providing technical services like mandatory regulatory inspections and engineering testing to government agencies, quasi-public entities, schools, hospitals, utilities and airports.

Winston & Strawn and Atrium for Boxwood/Kirkland & Ellis for Atlas.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co./Reliance Industries

The Saudi royal family, still under scrutiny for Mohamad bin Salman’s credibly accused role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has decided to put the family business in the spotlight. The Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco), in what many see as a prelude to its expected IPO in either 2020 or 2021, has purchased 20% of the oil and chemicals business of India’s largest company, Reliance Industries, for $15 billion. Aramco was typically tight-lipped about the deal, sharing very few details during the announcement and declining to comment on which legal firms advised on the deal. 

Aramco and Reliance Industries both declined to comment.

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