Deals & People March 31, 2009

Lewis Joins Former Fidelity Colleagues at Putnam

Putnam Investments named Benjamin Lewis as managing director of Defined Contribution Sales and Relationship Management.
Reported by

A Putnam news release said Lewis will head all sales and relationship management within Putnam’s defined contribution retirement plan business. Lewis will be charged with overseeing sales to advisers, intermediaries, and retirement plan sponsors.

Lewis joins the firm from Fidelity Investments, where he was senior vice president for Fidelity Employer Services Company. He is the latest in a string of Fidelity executives making the move to Putnam (see “More Fidelity Execs Land at Putnam’).

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Lewis will report to Putnam managing director and head of Defined Contribution, Edmund Murphy, who also joined Putnam earlier this year from Fidelity Investments, where he was executive vice president of distribution for Personal and Workplace Investing (see “Putnam Names Fidelity Alum as DC Business Leader’).

Deals & People March 31, 2009

Report: CVC Capital in Talks to Buy iShares

CVC Capital Partners is in exclusive talks with Barclays to buy its exchange-traded funds business, iShares, according to a news report.
Reported by

The price is around £3 billion ($4.28 billion)—equivalent to 10 times the business’ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones. The price does not include the securities lending business.

Barclays would get warrants equivalent to 20% in iShares as part of the deal, but the terms of the warrants have yet to be ironed out, one person familiar with the situation said. The warrants would allow Barclays to participate in any upside in the value of iShares in the future.

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The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the week. The London-based buyout firm entered the auction relatively late in the process (see “Barclays to Wrap Up iShares Bidding’).

According to the news report, other bidders for iShares included a group comprising Hellman & Friedman and Apax Partners and another consortium made up of Colony Capital and Bain Capital. Goldman Sachs is also likely to have put in a bid, the sources said.

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