Wilshire Advisors LLC, a Santa Monica-based financial firm offering a broad array of investment data and advisory services, on Oct. 31 announced its first acquisition in the company’s 51-year history. The company agreed to buy the investment advisory firm Lyxor Asset Management Inc. from the European asset management giant Amundi SA for an undisclosed amount.
The deal will fold in Lyxor Asset Management Inc.’s $20.8 billion in assets under management as well as its client roster into Wilshire’s $88 billion asset business.
According to Jason Schwarz, Wilshire’s president and deputy chief executive, the deal took less than six months to effectuate.
The deal predicates on Wilshire offering its investment research insights – one of its hottest commodities since it established one of the first broad-based U.S. stock indexes in the 1970s.
Since then, Wilshire has launched two market indexes including the FT Wilshire 5000 Index in association with the Financial Times, regarded as a benchmark for the U.S. stock market’s health.
“Wilshire has a broader set of capabilities around asset allocation and multi-asset class solutions,” Schwarz said. “So we believe that those services and solutions will be compelling to the existing Lyxor clients. We also believe fundamentally that this will allow us to acquire new clients.”
Wilshire serves some of the leading pension funds and endowments globally as well as financial advisors. Its client list ranges from the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund to the Government of Guam Retirement Fund.
Schwarz said there are additional deals in the pipeline. Nearly three years ago the firm was bought by CC Capital and Motive Partners, an investment firm and private equity firm, which brought in the capital capability for inorganic growth.
While Wilshire management still holds a “meaningful” stake in the business, its new ownership sets the stakes for more acquisitions.
“The initial transaction was really predicated on a desire to grow both organically and inorganically,” Schwarz said. “So I’m particularly excited about this next chapter.”
