Savant Gets Stake From Hamilton Lane, Cynosure Stays Invested
Savant Wealth Management has secured a $270 million minority stake from Hamilton Lane, which will allow current minority holder Cynosure Partners to offer a liquidity option to its original partners about 10 years after the initial investment, the firms announced.
The move by Westford, Mass.-based Cynosure to secure funding allows it to remain invested in Rockford, Ill.-based Savant, which has grown to over $57 billion in client assets, through a continuation vehicle.
Another early investor, Kelso & Company, will also remain as a minority investor, while Savant employees will remain the largest shareholder group.
“Ten years marked the right time for us to allow our original investors to take liquidity in what has been a great partnership with the entire Savant organization,” Keith Taylor, co-founder and managing director at Cynosure, said in a statement.
Conshohocken, Penn.-based Hamilton Lane was the only investor in the continuation vehicle for Cynosure.
“Savant is a high-quality business with a strong management team operating in an attractive segment of the wealth management market that continues to benefit from powerful secular tailwinds,” Keith Brittain, co-head of secondary investments at Hamilton Lane, said in a statement.
Brent Brodeski, founder and chief executive officer of Savant, noted that the firm is over 25 times larger today than it was when Cynosure invested 10 years ago. In March, the RIA made its largest acquisition to date with a Massachusetts-based wealth manager with $3.9 billion in assets under management.
“It is difficult to find private investors that are truly long-term oriented and supportive of employee-owned organizations,” Brodeski said in a statement. “We believe we are still in the early innings. We appreciate the vote of confidence in our future that this transaction signifies.”
Campbell Lutyens served as the financial advisor to Cynosure.
Cynosure is also a minority investor in RIA Steward Partners, an employee-owned partnership of independent advisory firms with nearly $50 billion in client assets. Taylor was recently appointed chairman of the board for that firm.
