Aon to shed units in bid to answer regulators’ issues
Aon to shed units in bid to answer regulators’ issues
Greg Case cited the merger with Willis Towers Watson as the reason to sell the two businesses.
Aon PLC announced on June 3 plans to sell its U.S. retirement consulting business to Aquiline Capital Partners and its Aon Retiree Health Exchange business to Alight Solutions for a total of $1.4 billion.
An Aon spokesman confirmed that the deal does not include its outsourced chief investment officer or non-discretionary investment consulting businesses but declined to comment further beyond what was in the news release.
Private equity firms GTCR and Reverence Capital are acquiring Wells Fargo Asset Management, freeing it from its bank parent Wells Fargo.
The $2.1 billion price tag for WFAM, which has $603 billion in assets, makes it one of the largest asset management deals ever and the largest private equity acquisition in the industry in 20 years. Wells Fargo, which will maintain a 9.9 percent stake and will remain a client and distributor, said it put the manager up for sale so it could focus on wealth management.
Nico Marais, the current CEO of WFAM who joined from Schroders in 2017, will stay in the role of chief executive, while Joe Sullivan, the former chairman and CEO of Legg Mason, will join as executive chairman of the board. Some executives of WFAM will have equity in the new organization for the first time.