Sculptor Capital accepts Rithm's sweetened offer for $12 a share

Sculptor Capital Management

12/10/2023 14:03

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
       NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Sculptor Capital Management
 SCU.N  on Thursday said it will accept a sweetened bid from
Rithm Capital  RITM.N  after the real estate investment firm
raised its offer for the hedge fund firm by nearly 8% to roughly
$676 million.
    Rithm will now pay $12 a share, up from $11.15 a share,
Sculptor said in a statement. Shareholders will vote on the deal
at a special meeting on Nov. 16. Sculptor's stock price closed
at $11.96 on Wednesday.
    Rithm's new offer came nearly one week after a consortium
backed by billionaire investors made their own proposal for 
Sculptor, and the firm's special committee said in a regulatory
filing that it would review that rival bid.
    Sculptor's board unanimously voted to approve the new Rithm
bid, sticking with the company it first agreed to sell itself to
in July. 
    The battle over Sculptor's future -- the largest U.S.
publicly traded hedge fund with some $30 billion in assets --
has captivated Wall Street for months as prominent investors
Boaz Weinstein, Bill Ackman, Marc Lasry and Jeff Yass waded into
the fight.
    The foursome, known as Bidder J, proposed paying $13 a share
for Sculptor, sources close to the group said. At the same time,
billionaire investor Dan Och, who founded Sculptor nearly 30
years ago and remains a large investor alongside other former
top executives, has publicly urged Sculptor to be more
transparent and reveal who had offered to pay what.
    Some drama also centered around the future of Sculptor Chief
Investment Officer Jimmy Levin, with Rithm promising to keep him
in place, arguing that investors preferred continuity. The
Weinstein group would not keep Levin in his current role. 
    Weinstein and Och could not immediately be reached for
comment.

 (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
 ((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +617 233 2138; Reuters
Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))