Victory Capital, the San Antonio-based asset manager, has agreed to buy First Eagle Investments for roughly $7 billion, a deal announced Wednesday that will push the combined firm's client assets to about $571 billion. The acquisition, one of the largest in the asset management industry this year, folds in First Eagle's approximately $222 billion in assets under management as of July 31 and marks another major step in Victory Capital's aggressive expansion strategy.
According to Bloomberg, Victory Capital will pay roughly $7 billion for First Eagle, financed through about $4 billion in cash and $2 billion in newly issued shares, though other reporting on the deal structure puts the cash portion at approximately $4.4 billion. Victory Capital will also assume $575 million of First Eagle's existing 7.25% senior secured notes due in 2032, according to Investing.com, with the financing backed by commitments from BofA Securities and RBC Capital Markets. The deal is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2027.
A Bet on Scale and Synergy
Investing.com reports that Victory Capital expects the acquisition to generate approximately $280 million in net expense synergies and be roughly 35% accretive to its 2027 adjusted earnings per share, with combined annual revenue projected at $3.2 billion. Those figures matter because asset managers increasingly lean on operating leverage — cutting overlapping costs after a merger — to boost margins quickly once platforms are combined, per the same outlet's reporting.
Seller Genstar Capital, the private equity firm that took majority control of First Eagle just a year earlier, will come away with a 14.6% fully diluted economic stake in Victory Capital, the site notes. That stake is structured primarily as non-voting convertible preferred stock, with voting rights capped at 4.9% and subject to a three-year lock-up. Genstar will also gain two seats on Victory Capital's board, which is expanding from nine to eleven members as part of the transaction.
Chasing a Trillion-Dollar Goal
The purchase is the latest move in Chairman and CEO David Brown's stated ambition, announced in February, to grow Victory Capital toward $1 trillion in assets under management through large platform acquisitions, as reported by the Valley City Times-Record. Brown had previously identified asset managers in the $50 billion to $200 billion range as his acquisition sweet spot, and First Eagle's $222 billion asset base fits squarely into that strategy. Brown will continue leading the combined company, which anchors one of the nation's largest publicly traded traditional asset managers in San Antonio.
First Eagle will keep operating under its own brand, leadership, and investment autonomy even as it moves onto Victory Capital's operational platform, according to Alternative Credit Investor. Notably, First Eagle's $41 billion alternative credit and collateralized loan obligation division will become Victory Capital's core alternative investments platform, giving the San Antonio firm a serious foothold in high-margin private credit. First Eagle is led by CEO Mehdi Mahmud.
International Backing and a Fast Flip
Amundi, the French asset management giant that holds a 27% economic stake in Victory Capital as its largest shareholder, issued a statement Wednesday endorsing the transaction, GlobeNewswire reported. Amundi confirmed it will continue distributing both Victory Capital and First Eagle products outside the United States, extending a distribution partnership that followed Amundi's earlier sale of its Amundi US business to Victory Capital.
For Genstar Capital, the sale represents a remarkably quick turnaround. The firm had acquired its majority stake in First Eagle in August 2025, facilitating the exit of previous owners Blackstone Inc. and Corsair Capital, which had held controlling stakes since 2015. Just months before agreeing to sell to Victory Capital, First Eagle itself was on the buying side of a deal — closing a $473 million acquisition of Columbus-based Diamond Hill Investment Group in April to scale up its fixed-income business, as Hoodline previously reported.
Track Record With Big Deals
Victory Capital enters this deal with a recent history of successfully digesting large acquisitions. In its August earnings report, the company confirmed it had fully realized $110 million in net expense synergies from its mid-2026 integration of Pioneer Investments, formerly Amundi US, and posted record second-quarter net long-term inflows of $4.2 billion, according to Seeking Alpha. Victory Capital's net leverage stood at 1.0x EBITDA heading into the First Eagle transaction.
Still, the deal carries execution risk. Key open questions include whether Victory Capital can integrate First Eagle while keeping net inflows healthy across both platforms, how the company manages debt leverage given the sizable cash outlay, and whether the deal will draw antitrust or shareholder scrutiny as it moves toward its targeted first-quarter 2027 close.
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