Bain Capital casts covetous eyes on Insignia Financial

The U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital has made an offer to acquire the Australian financial services provider Insignia Financial. The deal could reach a volume of approximately 2.7 billion Australian dollars (1.7 billion U.S. dollars). On Thursday, Insignia Financial received a non-binding offer of 4 Australian dollars per share in cash, which the company will now review. Australian listed asset managers are increasingly targeted by foreign investors interested in the country's growing pension assets. Insignia's business includes asset management and advisory services. As of the end of September, Insignia managed and administered approximately 319.6 billion Australian dollars in assets. Bain's offer represents a premium of over 30% compared to the closing price of Insignia shares on Wednesday, before initial reports of the takeover interest appeared in the Australian Financial Review. There have been other takeover developments in the industry as well: Australian hedge fund Regal Partners ended talks over an acquisition of Platinum Asset Management. Both parties withdrew the previously unexpectedly announced bid of 526 million Australian dollars. Previously, KKR & Co. completed the 2.2 billion Australian dollar acquisition of Perpetual's asset management business after EQT teamed up with Regal in 2022 to target the company. Bain Capital also remains active and increased its offer for Fuji Soft from Japan to 4.3 billion U.S. dollars, intensifying the competition with KKR.