Philly-based FS Investments to Acquire Portfolio Advisors
Posted on 02/02/2023
Philadelphia-based FS Investments has more than US$ 35 billion in assets under management. Darien, Connecticut-based Portfolio Advisors, LLC is a global middle-market private asset specialist with more than US$ 38 billion in assets under management. FS Investments signed a definitive agreement to acquire Portfolio Advisors.
Michael Forman is a Philadelphia lawyer who founded FS Investments with Campus Apartments CEO David Adelman in 2007. Michael Forman started his career at the law firm Klehr Harrison, working in mergers and acquisitions. Eventually in the 2000s, Forman left the firm and started investing in companies on his own. FS Investments distributes its funds through an extensive wealth management distribution platform, with hundreds of selling agreements across the wirehouse, RIA, and independent broker-dealer channels. In recent years, the firm also launched in-house managed, institutionally focused credit strategies, using CLO and draw-down structures.
Founded in 1994 to serve institutional investors, Portfolio Advisors offers investment solutions across private equity, private credit, and private real estate. The firm manages a broad range of strategies including direct, secondary, and primary investments and junior and senior credit. Portfolio Advisors also provides institutional clients customized discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management across its core strategies. Most recently, Portfolio Advisors launched its MVP Private Markets Fund, a registered private equity fund with more than US$ 500 million in assets, which is structured for both wealth management and institutional clients.
Portfolio Advisors will become the institutional investment arm of FS Investments and will continue to operate with its full complement of employees and its offices in Darien, Dallas, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, and Singapore. FS Investments’ and Portfolio Advisors’ executives will have representation on senior leadership committees across both organizations. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to applicable regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Advisors
UBS Investment Bank served as lead financial advisor and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP served as primary legal advisor to FS Investments on the transaction, with Dechert LLP serving as special regulatory counsel. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Mizuho Americas also served as financial advisors to FS Investments. Moelis & Company LLC served as financial advisor and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal advisor to Portfolio Advisors on the transaction, with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP serving as special regulatory counsel. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.