TPG-backed American Beacon explores sale

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  • Sale could value it at more than $600 million
  • PE firms are among the prospective buyers
  • Fund manager has $60.1 bln under management

An auction for American Beacon is currently underway and is being managed by investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co, the people told sister news service Reuters. Private equity firms are among the prospective buyers, the people added.

The people asked not to be identified because the sale process is not public. Pharos declined to comment while representatives of TPG, American Beacon and JPMorgan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Founded in 1986, Fort Worth, Texas-based American Beacon manages a series of mutual funds open to institutional investors, retirement accounts and individual investors. It had $60.1 billion in assets under management as of the end of June. In 2008, AMR Corp, the former parent of American Airlines Group Inc, sold American Beacon, which at the time operated as its asset-management subsidiary, to Pharos and TPG for $480 million. AMR kept a small stake in American Beacon as part of that deal.

Private equity dealmaking in the U.S. asset management sector has largely been elusive. One prominent deal last year was The Carlyle Group LP’s acquisition of bond manager TCW Group Inc from France’s Societe Generale.

Jessica Toonkel and Greg Roumeliotis are correspondents for Reuters in New York.