Securing a deal, therefore, requires a bit of creativity, and have Dyal Capital Partners, Owl Rock Capital Partners and HPS Investment Partners ever done so with this extraordinary circle-jerk: In essence, an asset manager that invests in hedge-fund stakes (Dyal) is simultaneously spinning off from its owner (Neuberger Berman) by merging with a SPAC backed by a hedge fund (HPS) that is partially owned by said asset manager, and merging with a second hedge fund (Owl Rock) that is also owns a chunk of, in which Frankestein’s monster the former parent will remain a major investor. Makes total sense, right?

Dyal and Owl Rock said they have been discussing a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company called Altimar Acquisition Corp.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on the transaction, which would value the combined asset managers at about $13 billion, according to people familiar with the matter….

Dyal has previously floated the idea of an IPO of one or more of its funds as a possible way to allow its investors the option of monetizing their holdings, the Journal has reported. The transaction being discussed, however, is an IPO of the management company and wouldn’t alter the liquidity opportunities for fund investors.

Of course: Who would want to undertake a complicated financial transaction to benefit them? And who says SPACs are just back-slapping masturbatory nonsense that will end in tears?

Dyal Capital in Talks to Combine With Owl Rock Capital [WSJ]
Ex-Barclays investment bank chairman plans to raise $250 million with blank-check company [MarketWatch]
Australia’s Macquarie to buy Waddell & Reed Financial for $1.7 billion [Reuters via CNBC]

Neuberger Berman says Saba’s proposals were “resoundingly rejected.” This is an interesting choice of phrase, insofar as one of the three proposals—calling for a share buyback—was approved (Neuberger has graciously agreed to “consider” such a move following the non-binding proposal); the proposal to fire Neuberger as the fund’s manager, by Neuberger’s own count, got 2.6 million more votes in favor than opposed, and each of Saba’s three nominees received 2 million more votes than any of Neuberger’s nominees; and the only reason the latter two efforts failed were due to supermajoritarian voting rules that would have required Saba to win 90% of the votes cast, on account of the fact that more than 8 million shares weren’t voted at all. Neuberger justified its statement by noting that fund shareholders—those that bothered to vote, anyway—“rejected Saba’s proposals by greater than 2 to 1 margins,” which is a strange thing to say about an election in which your side received significantly fewer votes than the other side. But that’s only because those of you uninitiated in the Trumpian ways of counting the votes of closed-end fund investors are probably taking into account the 3.8 million shares voted by Saba and its “followers,” which apparently don’t count for rhetorical purposes in a poll in which it had no shot thanks to rules which Neuberger say are laid down by the Investment Company Act of 1940 but which Saba says puts the fund at risk of falling out of compliance with the very same law. No wonder this fund is trading at a discount.

Anyway, suffice it to say that Saba is not at all amused by the way Neuberger is portraying an election that it won approximately 60% of the votes cast.

“Although Saba received 50% more votes for its nominees than Neuberger did for their nominees, because of the high election standard implemented by the Fund, neither slate of directors were elected,” he said in an email. “Any statement saying that Neuberger won the election of directors is categorically false.”

Is that the end of it? Is it hell. Saba is taking a page from another of its closed-end fund adversaries, BlackRock, whose law firm suggested the SEC have a look at Saba’s closed-end fund campaigns.

A lawyer at an outside law firm advising Saba said Neuberger broke Securities and Exchange Commission rules by allegedly mischaracterizing the voting results in its Tuesday statement.

Boaz Weinstein’s Hedge Fund Battle with Neuberger Berman Gets More Heated [WSJ]
Neuberger Berman High Yield Strategies Fund Stockholders Reject Closed-end Fund Raider [press release]
Saba’s Tender Proposal of Neuberger Berman’s High Yield Strategies Fund Passes [press release]

Apparently, the fever of "Anyone can do anything" is spreading...

Richard Fuld is backing a multifamily office that will help small-business owners manage their personal wealth, part of a comeback effort by the former head of failed investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. 

Dick Fuld is back again, baby! And he's offering his advice...in exchange for a lot of your money.

Matrix Wealth Partners, in registering as an investment adviser last month, disclosed that it’s partly owned by Fuld. The New York-based firm’s other owners are Matthew Rubin and Justin Gaines, both of whom come from Neuberger Berman, a former Lehman money-management unit that oversaw about $255 billion at the end of September.
The multifamily office will complement Matrix Advisors, a consulting firm that Fuld set up in the aftermath of Lehman’s September 2008 bankruptcy to help small and medium-sized companies raise cash, according to the filing. Fuld’s clients could hire Matrix Advisors to help them sell their closely held businesses, then turn to Matrix Wealth Partners for advice on how to invest the proceeds.

But if you're going to give Dick Fuld all that cash for his proven business acumen and too big to can't fail advice, you probably want to know what he's been up to lately...

In 2015, Matrix Advisors consulted on the sale of the National Stock Exchange and, according to a Reuters report, Fuld also set up a New York real estate firm called Matrix RE Brokerage. Fuld broke his silence that year by speaking at the Marcum MicroCap Conference on Lehman’s demise, the financial crisis and its aftermath.
“Why has the belly of America been ripped out?” he said at the time. “The small companies can’t get financing.”

At least we know that the advice will be..."visceral"?

Former Lehman CEO Fuld Emerges as Backer of Wealth-Advisory Firm [Bloomberg]