China's Huatai Securities acquires tech provider AssetMark

Huatai Securities, a Chinese securities group with brokerage and investment services, has acquired AssetMark, a wealth management technology provider previously owned by Aquiline Capital Partners and Genstar Capital, it announced in a press release. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. Huatai is paying about $780 million in cash for AssetMark, according to a public document. AssetMark, which has $29.3 billion in assets under management, offers financial advisers a tool called Investing Evolved, which creates and visualizes portfolios for advisers' clients, and an adviser portal called eWealthManager, for client and account management, according to the company. It will continue as an independently operated company, working on various technology projects under its new parent company. Before Aquiline and Genstar owned AssetMark, Genworth Financial had owned the company. AssetMark is also partnered with numerous other third-party vendors in the industry, including Finance Logix, Redtail, ActiFi, Riskalyze, AdvisorWebsites and MoneyQuotient. This is Huatai's first investment in the United States. The company offers brokerage, wealth management, investment banking, asset management and investment and trading to retail, institutional and corporate investors. It is also publicly traded on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges with a market capitalization of more than $18.5 billion in U.S. dollars. "As a management team with ownership that ensures alignment of interest in our continued success, we are confident we have the right partner to invest in AssetMark's next stage of growth," Charles Goldman, president and chief executive of AssetMark, said in a press release. "We are excited to work with Huatai through this transition and beyond as we share a common belief in delivering outstanding service and innovative solutions to advisers and the investors they serve."