Genworth to hike alternatives offerings with Altegris buy

Genworth Financial Inc. last week said that it has reached an agreement to acquire alternative-investments platform Altegris Advisors LLC for about $35 million.

The deal also includes some performance-based payments.

Altegris, which has about $2 billion in client assets and provides clearing services to accounts representing $800 million in institutional assets, is expected to help Genworth provide a broader product offering to independent financial advisers.

“As a specialist with deep roots in designing and delivering alternative-investment products, we are excited to introduce our capability and expertise to a broader group of financial advisers,” said Jon Sundt, president and chief executive of Altegris.

The firm provides investors and advisers with access to managers of hedge funds, funds of funds and managed futures, among other alternative investments.

The deal was spawned following a year of research into what Genworth clients were most interested in but not getting on the platform, according to Gurinder Ahluwalia, Genworth’s president and chief executive.

“We pulled together our field advisory board and talked about the capabilities that we needed, and the No. 1 item was alternatives,” he said.

The original idea was simply to include Altegris products and strategies on the Genworth platform, Mr. Gurinder said.

“We started to like them so much because of their integrity and the culture,” he said. “So instead of working with them, we decided to buy them.”

The plan is to keep the Altegris platform intact as part of Genworth’s, Mr. Gurinder said.

The combined operation will have $23 billion under management. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

E-mail Jeff Benjamin at [email protected].