Case Studies

Bank of Ireland’s Acquisition of Guggenheim Alternative Asset Management

Bank of Ireland - Guggenheim

Announced: December 2005
Closed: February 2006

The Challenge

Bank of Ireland ("BOI"), the leading provider of financial services in the Republic of Ireland with a major presence in the U.K., and its subsidiary Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM") were interested in participating in the rapidly growing segment of alternative asset management, but they were also concerned about risk controls and transparency. BOI retained Putnam Lovell as financial advisor.

The Solution

BOI acquired a majority stake in Guggenheim Alternative Asset Management ("GAAM"), a U.S.-based fund-of-hedge-funds manager with $2.8 billion in assets under management. The remaining equity of GAAM continued to be owned by its former owner, Guggenheim Capital, LLC, and the Company's management over the medium term. GAAM continued as a separate business, becoming one of the investment boutiques within BIAM.

Results

The acquisition enhanced BIAM's product suite by providing a range of hedge-fund products to its U.S. and global institutional client base and also enabled it to leverage BOI's significant and established international distribution network. GAAM's business model of establishing segregated accounts with its underlying managers, its sophisticated risk management infrastructure and its ability to provide customized solutions enabled BIAM to provide a truly unique and superior fund-of-hedge-funds product with the highest level of transparency and stringent risk control. The GAAM platform allowed it to participate in the rapidly growing institutional demand for alternative products while also addressing investor concerns about risk controls and transparency. For GAAM and Guggenheim Capital, the transaction resulted in access to a global, institutional distribution capability, complementing the existing client base of primarily U.S. institutions and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Back to Case Studies

All transactions, case studies, presentations and other banking activities prior to Jefferies' July 2007 acquisition of Putnam Lovell were represented by Putnam Lovell Securities NBF, Inc.