Genstar Capital and Aquiline Capital Partners have entered into an agreement to acquire Ascensus from J.C. Flowers & Co. No financial details on this transaction were announced but according to industry sources the enterprise value of Ascensus is estimated to be approximately $965 million with annual an EBITDA of $70 million. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Ascensus, acquired by J.C. Flowers in 2007, is a service provider to retirement and college savings plans including defined contribution and defined benefit retirement plans, 529 college savings plans, and IRA and health savings accounts. Ascensus supports more than 1.7 million retirement plan participants and administers more than 3.3 million 529 college savings accounts, along with more than 1.5 million IRAs and HSAs. The company is headquartered north of Philadelphia in Dresher, PA (www.ascensus.com).
This is the second acquisition that Genstar and Aquiline have cooperated on. In 2013 the two firms partnered up on the acquisition of Genworth Wealth Management for $412 million.
Genstar, which had a final close in August 2015 of its seventh fund with $2 billion in commitments, invests from $50 million to $400 million in middle-market companies that have enterprise values from $50 million to $1 billion and EBITDAs greater than $15 million. Genstar targets investments in financial services, software, industrial technology, and healthcare industries. The firm was founded in 1988 and is based in San Francisco (www.gencap.com).
Aquiline Capital Partners invests in middle-market businesses across the financial services sector in banking and credit, insurance, investment management and markets, and financial technology. The firm is based in New York (www.aquiline-llc.com).
J.C. Flowers & Co. invests in the financial services industry. Founded in 1998, the firm has invested over $14 billion of capital in 15 countries across a range of industry subsectors, including banking, insurance and reinsurance, investment banking and brokerage, and specialty finance. J.C. Flowers has offices in New York and London (www.jcfco.com).
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 9-29-15
