Investcorp, the Bahrain-headquartered global provider and manager of alternative investment products, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mercury Capital Advisors (Mercury), one of the world's leading institutional capital raising and investment advisory enterprises.
As part of the transaction, Mercury will remain an independent business operating under its current leadership team. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and subject to receipt of relevant regulatory approvals the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019.
Founded in 2009 by Michael Ricciardi, Alan Pardee and Enrique Cuan, Mercury has closed over $170bn in fund commitments since 2003, when the Mercury team was at Merrill Lynch, and maintains relationships with over 2,500 institutional investors across the globe.
Mercury, its affiliates and distribution partners have over 50 employees in 14 offices across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia."
The firm has extensive experience in providing advisory services on direct deals and co-investments, joint ventures and secondary transactions, as well as consulting services for general partners. Today Mercury, its affiliates and distribution partners have over 50 employees in 14 offices across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Long-term strategy
"Our partnership with Mercury is completely in line with Investcorp's long-term strategy and our mission to serve investors worldwide with an array of attractive opportunities in alternative investments," said Mohammed Alardhi, executive chairman of Investcorp. "Mercury is well positioned to deliver unique solutions to clients across the globe through its traditional placement capabilities."
"This partnership is a powerful endorsement of Mercury's unrelenting commitment both to excellence and to our clients," said Michael Ricciardi, CEO, managing partner and Co-Founder of Mercury. "We have known the Investcorp team for many years and believe they are the right partners with whom we can expand our capabilities. We are particularly excited about what this partnership means for Mercury's outsourced CIO platform and partnerships with other asset managers and family offices."
"We are delighted to be partnering with Investcorp while continuing to maintain our independence and ability to work with the world's leading investors and allocators," added Alan Pardee and Enrique Cuan, Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Mercury. "We look forward to working closely with Investcorp's businesses that partner with third party managers through seeding and acquisition of minority stakes as a fascinating enhancement to our already strong, independent global placement agency activities," they said.
This investment is the latest in Investcorp's growth strategy to reach $50bn in assets under management over the medium term and follows Investcorp's acquisition last year of a strategic minority stake in Banque Paris Bertrand, an independent, Swiss-regulated private bank based in Geneva and Luxembourg.
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