Private equity firm Lovell Minnick Partners has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Tortoise Investments, a $20.2 billion asset management firm that specializes in the energy sector, including MLPs. It manages closed-end funds, mutual funds and separately managed accounts.
Terms were not disclosed, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.
Lovell Minnick will be purchasing the equity stake in Tortoise currently owned by Mariner Holdings and the retiring co-founders of Tortoise. Three co-founders, Zachary Hamel, Kenneth Malvey and Terry Matlack, will sell their interest in Tortoise and then retire from the firm when the deal closes; another co-founder, David Schulte, who left Tortoise in 2015, will also sell his remaining interest in Tortoise.
Other members of Tortoise's senior management and its portfolio managers have signed long-term employment agreements to remain with the firm, which will maintain its independence and brand and daily portfolio management.
