Carlyle Deal to Buy TCW Group Cleared of EIG Opposition

EIG Global Energy Partners LLC, the firm that filed suit last year over Carlyle Group LP (CG)’s announced acquisition of TCW Group Inc., now supports the deal in a reversal the companies say will allow it to be completed.

EIG, an asset manager spun off from Los Angeles-based TCW, said in an August complaint that it would face irreparable harm by the acquisition. EIG operates a fund jointly with TCW and the deal would give Carlyle, a direct competitor in energy investments, access to EIG’s sensitive information, the company said at the time. EIG and Carlyle are based in Washington.

TCW will keep its financial stake in funds run by EIG, while EIG will manage the funds’ investments, the three companies said today in a statement, without disclosing settlement terms. Carlyle’s acquisition of TCW is set to close “in the near future,” they said.

“This agreement is a win for everyone involved and we are pleased to move forward to closing,” Olivier Sarkozy, Carlyle’s head of global financial services, said in the statement.

Carlyle, the second-largest manager of alternative assets such as private equity and real estate, agreed in August to buy TCW in a deal that will give TCW’s management and employees a 40 percent stake. The deal values TCW at $700 million to $800 million, two people familiar with the agreement said at the time.

TCW, which has about $135 billion in assets under management, was owned for more than a decade by French bank Societe Generale SA. (GLE)

To contact the reporter on this story: Devin Banerjee in New York at dbanerjee2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net