UBS to sell hedge fund unit O’Connor to Cantor Fitzgerald

[ZURICH] UBS Group’s asset management division has signed an agreement to sell its O’Connor unit to Cantor Fitzgerald, it said in a statement on Wednesday (May 28) that confirmed a Bloomberg News report from earlier this month.

Closing of the transaction for the “single manager hedge fund, private credit and commodities platform” is expected during the fourth quarter and is subject to regulatory approvals, UBS said in the statement. The deal includes “O’Connor’s six investment strategies” with about US$11 billion in assets under management. 

O’Connor’s investment and support teams “will move to Cantor Fitzgerald’s asset management division upon closing,” it said. The two companies also plan to establish “a long-term commercial arrangement.”

The deal is “transformational for our asset management business” Cantor Fitzgerald chairman Brandon Lutnick said in a separate statement. 

Bloomberg News first reported earlier this month that UBS is in talks with Cantor Fitzgerald about the sale of the unit. BLOOMBERG