MetLife buying PineBridge in asset management push

MetLife Inc. agreed to buy PineBridge Investments’ assets outside of China from Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group as part of the US insurer’s push to grow in asset management.

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MetLife Investment Management, the institutional asset manager of the New York-based insurance company, will pay $800 million for closely held PineBridge, which manages about $100 billion in assets, according to a Monday statement that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. MetLife will also pay $200 million subject to achieving certain financial goals in 2025, and an additional $200 million subject to a multiyear earnout.

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MetLife shares fell 0.5 percent in New York trading Monday morning, valuing the company at about $56 billion.

The deal, which is expected to close in 2025, excludes PineBridge’s private equity funds and its China joint venture with Huatai Securities Co., which managed more than $70 billion as of the end of June. 

Pacific Century has retained the mainland China business and will focus developing Huatai-PineBridge and its private funds assets, according to a spokesperson for the holding company. The partnership with Huatai and Suzhou New District Hi-Tech Industrial aims to cater to the country’s growing demand for investment products. 

MetLife Investment Management, which focuses on asset classes including fixed income, private credit, and real estate, will have more than $700 billion under management after the deal is completed. The acquisition will boost its global footprint as more than half of the client assets being acquired from PineBridge are held by investors outside of the US and about one third are in Asia.

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“The acquisition of PineBridge Investments furthers our ambition to accelerate growth in asset management,” MetLife President Michel Khalaf said. “MetLife Investment Management is on a good path to grow its business organically, supplemented by targeted, complementary inorganic growth.”

MetLife was in exclusive talks to buy PineBridge’s assets outside of China for $1 billion to $1.5 billion after outbidding rivals including other asset managers and financial institutions, Bloomberg News reported in October.

Pacific Century bought PineBridge from American International Group Inc. for $500 million in 2010 as the insurer was selling assets to repay a government bailout. PineBridge was founded in 1996 and its clients include pension plans, insurance companies, official institutions, private banks, advisers, and intermediaries.

Bank of America Corp. acted as financial adviser to MetLife Investment Management on the transaction, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Evercore Inc. advised PineBridge.