New Firm Makes Its Initial M&A Deal -- WSJ

By Jenny Strasburg

LONDON -- An investment firm formed by former executives of Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has agreed to buy CIFC LLC, a publicly traded credit-fund manager based in New York, for about $330 million in cash, according to people familiar with the matter.

The acquisition by newly formed F.A.B. Partners is expected to be announced as soon as later Friday, the people said.

CIFC, with a market value of about $160 million, specializes in collateralized loan portfolios and is majority-owned by Columbus Nova, the U.S. investment arm of the Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate. CIFC manages about $14 billion in debt investments.

The acquisition is the first deal by Jersey-based F.A.B. Partners, which was set up in recent months by former Deutsche Bank executives Michele Faissola and Nizar Al-Bassam, along with Dalinc Ariburnu, who most recently was at Goldman Sachs.

F.A.B. is backed in the transaction by Supreme Universal Holdings Ltd., an investment arm of the Qatari royal family, people familiar with the matter said.

F.A.B. aims to source and manage investments for clients including high-net-worth families and sovereign-wealth funds, according to the company's website. It has about a dozen clients, including the Qatari royal family, one of the people said.

Mr. Faissola left Deutsche Bank last year after overseeing its global-asset and wealth-management business. Mr. Al-Bassam until earlier this year oversaw Deutsche Bank's financing-solutions business for a large part of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mr. Ariburnu this year left Goldman Sachs, where he was global co-head of sales for fixed income, currencies and commodities. He previously worked at Deutsche Bank.

CIFC shareholders have voted in favor of the deal with F.A.B., according to one person familiar with the transaction.

Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 22, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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