Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, the private-equity arm of The Bear Stearns Cos. Inc., will be spun off into an independent company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
As part of the move, JPMorgan Chase & Co. of New York will become BSMB's largest investor, assuming roughly $1 billion of investments and commitments, according to people familiar with the situation.
“We're grateful to a lot of people at Bear Stearns for helping give birth to us,” said John Howard, BSMB's chief executive, according to the report.
“We look forward to continuing to do what we've done well for the past 11 years for JPMorgan and our other investors.”
BSMB, which operates in the middle market, buying smaller companies than those acquired by private-equity firms, manages about $5 billion in assets.
JPMorgan completed its acquisition of Bear Stearns of New York last week at a $10 per-share, or $2.2 billion, after the bank collapsed due to a liquidity shortage.
New York-based JPMorgan has $6.6 billion in private-equity commitments, a significant portion of which is in its investment buyout arm, One Equity Partners LLC of Chicago.
No comments:
Post a Comment