Sankaty Advisors, an independently managed credit affiliate of Bain Capital, has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire a portfolio of loans and other securities from J.P. Morgan’s Global Special Opportunities Group. The portfolio contains mezzanine loans in North America and Europe, as well as loans and related special situations investments in Australia and across Asia, with an aggregate value of approximately $1.3 billion.
This acquisition follows Sankaty Advisors’ other recent purchases of loan portfolios from Irish Bank Resolution Capital, Lloyds Banking Group and CapitalSource.
“This is another attractive addition to our platform as we continue to identify portfolios around the world where we can be a provider of patient capital and a helpful, value-added lender to and investor in high quality companies,” said Jonathan S. Lavine, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Sankaty Advisors. “We are continuing to see significant opportunities to invest by leveraging the skills of our global credit team to diligence portfolios by geography, by industry and by borrower resulting in a diverse array of investment opportunities.”
“We are confident Sankaty Advisors will be a good steward of these assets as Sankaty has a successful track record of acquiring global investment portfolios and acting as partners to borrowers,” said Chris Nicholas, head of J.P. Morgan’s Global Special Opportunities Group. “Their global reach, scale, reputation and track record were important attributes as we evaluated potential buyers.”
The transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2014, is subject to borrower and regulatory approvals.
Kirkland & Ellis, LLP served as legal counsel to Sankaty Advisors. J.P. Morgan advised on the sale and Davis Polk & Wardwell, LLP served as legal counsel to JPMorgan Chase.
This transaction is not expected to have a material impact on JPMorgan Chase’s earnings.
Sankaty Advisors is the independently-managed credit affiliate of Bain Capital, LLC and one of the world’s leading private managers of fixed income and credit instruments. Founded in 1998 and now managing more than $24 billion of assets, Sankaty invests in a wide variety of securities and investments globally, including leveraged loans, high-yield bonds, distressed and stressed debt, mezzanine debt, structured products and equities.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.5 trillion and operations worldwide.