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Deutsche Börse has launched a bid to buy private equity-backed fund platform Allfunds for €5.3bn, as the German exchange group seeks to expand.
Deutsche Börse said on Thursday it had entered into exclusive discussions with Allfunds regarding a potential acquisition, saying a deal would “reduce fragmentation in the European investment fund industry and create a harmonised business with global reach”.
Amsterdam-listed Allfunds currently has a market capitalisation of €4.9bn and is backed by investors including US private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, which has previously explored a sale of the company. Deutsche Börse’s rival Euronext sought to buy the fund company in 2023 for €5.5bn, but dropped the bid.
A takeover would pave the way for an exit by Hellman & Friedman, which acquired Allfunds in a €1.8bn deal in 2017 before taking it public in 2021. Between them, the private equity group and Singaporean sovereign wealth investor GIC own about 35 per cent of the company’s shares.
An agreement would be the latest in a string of liquidity events for Hellman & Friedman, which last month pulled off one of the largest European initial public offerings of recent years when it took security services company Verisure public in Stockholm at a €13.7bn valuation.
Deutsche Börse is offering €8.80 per share for Allfunds, a roughly 8 per cent premium to the company’s closing share price on Thursday. Shares in Allfunds closed 22 per cent higher, after Bloomberg earlier reported the potential deal.
Deutsche Börse runs the Frankfurt stock exchange as well as derivatives exchange Eurex. A deal for Allfunds would mark its biggest acquisition in recent years, after the German group’s purchase of software company SimCorp for €3.9bn in 2023.
Allfunds helps connect fund management products with investors, charging buyers to access its platform and charging sellers to offer their products such as exchange-traded and mutual funds. It has more than €1.7tn in assets under administration and works with thousands of fund groups.
Deutsche Börse said a deal would expand its fund services arm, and would “significantly benefit” EU equity markets, adding that it strongly believes that “a prospering funds industry [is] essential to the EU’s status as a globally relevant financial centre”. European policymakers have for years tried to encourage more investment in the bloc.
Under the terms of the proposed deal, Deutsche Börse said Allfunds shareholders would also be entitled to dividends of up to €0.20 per Allfunds share for the financial year 2026 and €0.10 per share per quarter in 2027.