The sale of the US-based businesses will enable the acquirer to improve services including those to private clients.

Paris-headquartered Rothschild & Co’s North America business has agreed to offload two of its asset management entities.

In the deal, Nasdaq-listed Wintrust Financial Corporation’s subsidiary, Great Lakes Advisors, will buy the investment firms which oversee about $8 billion of assets.

The transaction, the terms of which are not being disclosed, is expected to be completed early in the first quarter of 2023, subject to certain closing conditions, Rothschild & Co said.

The businesses which are being acquired are Rothschild & Co Asset Management US Inc and Rothschild & Co Risk Based Investments LLC.

When the transaction is complete, the businesses will operate as Great Lakes Advisors, Rothschild & Co said in a statement yesterday. 

“The addition of Rothschild & Co Asset Management US to our team at Great Lakes Advisors will bring further scale, capabilities, and investment talent to the organization as it strives to deliver superior investment strategies to its growing institutional, intermediary, and private wealth clients,” Edward J Wehmer, founder and CEO of Wintrust, said.

Francois Perol, managing partner of Rothschild & Co, said: “As far as wealth and asset management is concerned, we will focus our efforts on our rapidly growing European business. Our global advisory and merchant banking business will continue to expand in North America and across the globe.”

Wintrust, a financial holding company, operates fifteen community bank subsidiaries, with more than 170 banking locations located in the greater Chicago and southern Wisconsin market areas. It also operates non-bank business units, including wealth management.