JPMorgan's purchase of Highbridge has settled buyer nerves and established a valuation model
When JPMorgan announced its plans to acquire a majority stake in the multi-strategy hedge fund shop Highbridge, news also surfaced that Lehman Brothers was thinking of increasing its stake in London-based hedge fund manager GLG. Suddenly, the industry was gripped by merger mania. Countless other names were thrown into the pot, with a long list of investment banks, asset managers and private equity-style investors rumored to be ready to pounce.
It is easy to understand the excitement. JPMorgan was willing agree to put a value of more than $1 billion on Glenn Dubin and Henry Swieca's 12-year-old Highbridge business - a figure that represents about 15% of assets under management or a multiple of about 15 times pre-tax earnings, depending on how they are calculated. That is enough to persuade even the die-hard entrepreneurial managers that it might...