Russell Investments has agreed to change owners for the second time in a decade, with an investor group led by venture firm B Capital and including the California Public Employees' Retirement System set to acquire the Seattle-based asset manager from private equity firms TA Associates and Reverence Capital Partners.
The transaction announced Thursday comes as Russell Investments reports more than $416 billion in global assets under management and organic growth exceeding 15% over the past two years, a pace the firm outmatches its publicly traded rivals.
Reporting by Bloomberg News put the deal's value at approximately $2.8 billion, though Russell Investments' own announcement was silent on financial terms.
Reverence Capital Partners also has stakes in Osaic, the $684 billion hybrid RIA, and alts platform CAIS.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Zach Buchwald, chairman and chief executive of Russell Investments, said that the firm and its new backers "share a long-term view of investing" in describing the rationale for the sale.
Once complete, the transaction will mark the fourth change in ownership structure for the 90-year-old firm since 2014, when the London Stock Exchange Group completed its purchase of Frank Russell Company's index and money-management businesses.
LSEG kept the index unit and moved in 2015 to divest he money-management and consulting arm, a process that concluded in 2016 when TA Associates and Reverence Capital Partners acquired the business for a reported $1.15 billion.
Ownership changes at Russell Investments have come alongside turnover in the executive suite. Len Brennan, who led the firm through the 2016 sale, was succeeded as chief executive by Michelle Seitz in September 2017; Seitz had spent 16 years running William Blair Investment Management, where assets under her leadership grew to $65 billion from $2.3 billion.
In May 2021, under Seitz, Russell brought in Kate El-Hillow from Goldman Sachs Asset Management as global chief investment officer and Kevin Klingert from J.P. Morgan as president, a move that Institutional Investor said was the firm's second senior leadership shuffle in three years.
Speculation about a sale has trailed the firm through much of its time under the private equity ownership model that's become familiar in asset management. Asked in 2019 about persistent rumors of a deal, Seitz said at the time that "what happens ultimately with the ownership will be a byproduct of success."
Buchwald, who eventually succeeded Seitz as chief executive, and El-Hillow, now president and chief investment officer, will continue leading the firm after the transaction closes, the company said Thursday, with no changes planned to its investment teams or client-facing staff.
The sale follows a separate financing move just six months earlier. In January, Russell Investments completed a $1.225 billion refinancing arranged by funds managed by Apollo, which the firm said extended its debt maturities by seven years without altering its ownership structure.
At the time, Russell disclosed that TA Associates held a majority stake, with Reverence Capital Partners, employees and Hamilton Lane Advisors holding the balance. The B Capital-led transaction now supersedes that structure entirely, transferring full ownership to the new consortium.
Russell Investments will continue to operate independently, the firm said, with its mission, investment professionals, and client teams to remain untouched through the transition.
CalPERS' deputy chief investment officer, Anton Orlich, said the deal "creates a compelling opportunity to build a next-generation asset manager."
Russell Investments said it plans to use the new backing to expand its outsourced chief investment officer business, portfolio implementation services and self-directed investing platform.
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