North Square Investments announced it has signed a binding agreement to be acquired by Azimut Group (“Azimut” or the “Group”), one of Europe’s largest independent asset managers, via its US subsidiary Azimut US Holdings Inc. (“Azimut US”).
With this transaction, Azimut significantly strengthens its U.S. presence by investing in a high-growth, integrated firm that complements its existing local businesses across Equity, Fixed Income, Multi-Asset, Alternative Investments and Wealth Management firmly establishing the U.S. as its second home market after Italy.
“We are extremely excited to be joining the Azimut Group family of companies,” said Mark Goodwin, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NSI. “Since our launch, NSI has been singularly focused on bringing to market best-in-class asset management solutions in partnership with top-tier institutional asset managers. The partnership with Azimut will allow us to accelerate our growth trajectory by leveraging a wide array of traditional and alternative strategies from across their global ecosystem,” Goodwin said.
“This acquisition solidifies Azimut’s foothold in the U.S. and will capitalize on the distribution success North Square has experienced since its founding in 2018,” Goodwin continued. “With the additional resources of a major, experienced and well-capitalized global money manager and the ability to offer additional product capabilities in asset classes such as global equity, global fixed income, private equity, private credit and alternative investments it sets North Square up for significant expansion. Importantly, we also feel a strong cultural alignment, as both firms are entrepreneurial in nature, innovative in the way they bring products to the marketplace, and collaborative in the way colleagues work across their respective organizations. We thank Estancia for their years of partnership and believing in our vision, and are incredibly excited about our future with Azimut.”
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“NSI is an exceptional fit for our Group,” said Giorgio Medda, CEO of Azimut Group. “Like Azimut, it operates as an integrated asset management and distribution firm with outstanding reach and execution. Its unique positioning enables it to capture the ongoing structural growth of the US asset and wealth management industry, managing a broader range of products and penetrating even deeper into its distribution networks. By bringing together NSI’s powerful sales engine with Azimut’s suite of high-performing, differentiated strategies, we are creating a compelling win-win: Azimut gains strong U.S. distribution capabilities, while NSI will enhance its offering with exclusive, top-tier global investment strategies for its clients.” Medda said.
Takashi Moriuchi, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Estancia added, “From Estancia’s decades of experience growing successful companies, we knew NSI’s ability to provide scaled U.S. intermediate distribution to talented money managers is a valuable, business-critical solution not easily replicated. At the inception of our investment in North Square, we identified non-U.S. asset managers seeking access to the largest retail pool of assets in the world as high-probability future partners. We are very pleased that NSI’s next phase of growth will be driven by a significant commitment from Azimut, benefiting the company’s investment teams and all the retail clients who have put their trust in North Square investment products,” Moriuchi said.
As part of the agreement, Kennedy Capital Management, an Azimut Group company, will become a subsidiary of North Square Investments, which in turn will be renamed Azimut NSI. Azimut NSI’s AUM will immediately increase to over $20 billion post-closing, with over 100 employees. North Square Funds and ETFs will continue to be marketed under the North Square brand. The parties have committed to a long-term growth strategy based on a jointly developed business plan as well as a long-term management incentive plan.
Source: PRNewswire