Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management is working with global investment firm General Catalyst to buy the rest of asset manager Janus Henderson Group Plc that it doesn’t already own.
The firms have offered $46 per share offer for Janus Henderson, valuing it at about $7 billion, according to a filing Monday that confirmed a Bloomberg News report.
Trian, together with its affiliated funds, beneficially owns approximately 20.4% of outstanding shares in Janus Henderson.
In a statement, Janus Henderson said that its board of directors intends to appoint a special committee to consider the proposal from Trian and General Catalyst.
The move is the latest dramatic turn in Trian’s five-year investment in Janus Henderson, which saw the activist investor oust previous management while pushing the fund manager to stop bleeding clients following the troubled merger that created the firm in 2017.
Trian first disclosed its investment in Janus Henderson in October 2020 when the shares were trading at $21.60 — around half of where they are now — according to a letter sent to the asset manager’s board. The stock dipped to just below $30 per share in April, when the Trump administration’s aggressive tariff policies upended markets. Shares have since rebounded along with the broader market, with the S&P 500 Index recently reaching an all-time high.
Trian and General Catalyst are looking to drive the next phase of growth at the firm with the help of AI, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Janus Henderson has grappled with big outflows of client money, after the merger of Henderson Group and Janus Capital that created the firm failed to deliver results while investors shifted into cheaper passive products.
Its troubles drew the interest of Trian, an activist investor that is now its largest shareholder and has two representatives on its board. The special committee that Janus Henderson is setting up to consider the offer is not expected to include directors affiliated with Trian or General Catalyst.
Peltz helped oust former Janus Henderson Chief Executive Officer Dick Weil, who left in 2022, and help install current CEO Ali Dibadj, Bloomberg News reported. In July, Janus Henderson reported its fifth consecutive quarter of positive net flows.
Janus Henderson, like many asset managers, has been expanding its roster of actively managed exchange-traded funds, given the difficulty of competing with the passive funds created by entrenched players such as Vanguard Group and BlackRock Inc.
General Catalyst, led by Chief Executive Officer Hemant Taneja, has backed startups such as Stripe, Airbnb Inc., Snap Inc., Warby Parker Inc. and Instacart and has been a longtime investor in the theme of artificial intelligence.
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