Kennedy Lewis Investment Management (“Kennedy Lewis”), a leading opportunistic credit manager,  announced that Petershill at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (“Petershill”) has made a passive, minority investment in the firm.

The transaction will provide Kennedy Lewis with additional resources to further align its interests with clients and accelerate investment in the business, including by continuing to attract best-in-class professionals to the firm. The investment from Petershill will have no impact on Kennedy Lewis’ investment process, management, or day-to-day operations. In conjunction with the investment from Petershill, Azimut Alternative Capital Partners, LLC (“AACP”) will divest its non-controlling, minority equity interest in Kennedy Lewis.

David K. Chene and Darren L. Richman, Co-Founders and Co-Managing Partners of Kennedy Lewis, said, “We are honored to welcome Petershill as a passive investment partner. Their experience and track record of supporting marquee alternative asset managers will be helpful to us as we continue to grow. We would also like to thank the team at AACP for their contributions and the role they played as we built Kennedy Lewis into the firm it is today and also our valued clients for their long-standing trust and support. We see a large and expanding pool of opportunities that are well-suited to our opportunistic, industry-focused approach and will now be even better positioned to seize these opportunities on behalf of our global investor base.”

“Kennedy Lewis is a world-class firm that possesses remarkable depth of expertise in specialized areas of the credit markets that are underserved by traditional lenders and many private credit firms,” said Robert Hamilton Kelly, co-head of Petershill at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “The firm has distinguished itself through investing in compelling, often complex situations and providing clients with return streams that offer attractive potential returns and diversification from other credit managers, who are often more sponsor focused. We believe they remain strategically positioned to further capitalize on the current market environment and succeed across economic cycles. We look forward to supporting Kennedy Lewis during the next chapter of their growth.”

“Notwithstanding this exit, we are committed to continue growing in the GP Staking landscape as well as in the broader Private Markets space, in the US and globally,” said Giorgio Medda, CEO of Azimut Group. “This transaction demonstrates the potential to exit positions in AACP’s target investment segment to esteemed established GP Stakes buyers. We bid farewell with a sense of gratitude to David, Darren, and the entire Kennedy Lewis team for the exceptional collaboration. They are not only outstanding managers and investors but also remarkable individuals. We extend our best wishes to them as they embark on a new journey with GSAM, a solid and reliable partner, with which we are sure they will be able to reach even more significant objectives in the broader private credit space. Our relationship with Kennedy Lewis however does not end; Azimut’s clients (both in Italy and the US) have invested in KL’s underlying strategies and we are convinced that our strategic and commercial relations will continue also in the future.”

BofA Securities acted as financial advisor and Seward & Kissel LLP acted as legal advisor to Kennedy Lewis. Sidley Austin LLP served as legal advisor to AACP and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal advisor to Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Source: Kennedy Lewis