Beware the hedge fund deal that’s not about money

Sculptor Capital Management

23/08/2023 16:29

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Jeffrey Goldfarb
       NEW YORK, Aug 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bill Ackman,
Marc Lasry and Boaz Weinstein want to buy Sculptor, which
manages $34 bln. Instead, Daniel Och’s former shop accepted a
lower bid from real estate investor Rithm. Sculptor’s doubts
about the moguls’ funding sounds fishy, as does the idea they
couldn’t work it out.       
    Full view will be published shortly.
    Follow @jgfarb on X
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
    Sculptor Capital Management on Aug. 21 disclosed in a proxy
statement that it had been contacted by 70 suitors before
agreeing in July to sell the firm to Rithm Capital for $639
million, or $11.15 a share.
    The deal documents also revealed that an anonymous
consortium, identified as “Bidder J,” had revised its bid on
Aug. 12 to $12.25 a share. The offer included certain
conditions, including that a newly formed shell company would be
financed with $210 million from selling Sculptor’s
collateralized loan obligation business.
    Sculptor’s special committee said the offer “raised a number
of questions as to the adequacy of committing financing and
closing certainty.” 
    Bidder J includes billionaire hedge fund managers Bill
Ackman, Marc Lasry and Boaz Weinstein, according to sources who
asked to remain anonymous. Also in the group is Jeff Yass, who
runs Susquehanna International, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 22.


 (Editing by Lauren Silva Laughlin, Sharon Lam and Aditya
Sriwatsav)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  GOLDFARB/ 
SIGN UP FOR BREAKINGVIEWS EMAIL ALERTS https://bit.ly/BVsubscribe
 | jeffrey.goldfarb@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
jeffrey.goldfarb.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))