Jefferies Putnam Lovell Anticipates Steady Pace of Dealmaking in the Second-Half of 2009 as Capital Market Stresses Recede

NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
A steady flow of M&A activity in the global asset management industry is on tap
for the second-half of 2009, following a four-month worldwide stock market
rally, and amid relief that economies, while unsteady, are coming out of crisis
toward recovery, according to Jefferies Putnam Lovell, the investment banking
group of Jefferies & Company, Inc. focused on the global asset management and
financial technology industries.

Themes that were dominant in the first-half of 2009 - such as divestitures by
larger financial institutions needing to shore up their capital base, pure-play
asset managers seeking to add scale, fill product gaps, add talent, and expand
product offerings at attractive prices, and private equity firms drawn to the
industry`s growth and profit potential and low capital requirements - will
continue to play an outsized role in the latter half of the year, according to
Jefferies Putnam Lovell.

To be sure, investment management industry deal volume in the first-half of 2009
was lower than in the year-earlier period, with only 72 announced transactions,
against 109. Without the June blockbuster BlackRock purchase of Barclays Global
Investors - the biggest ever by assets under management at $1.5 trillion, and
second-largest by deal value at $13.5 billion - the tally for deal value and
managed assets transacted would have been far lower. With BlackRock/BGI, total
deal value was $14.1 billion in the first-half of 2009, while managed assets
transacted totaled $2.3 trillion. The comparable totals a year earlier were $7.7
billion in deal value and $588 billion in assets under management changing
hands. Notably, the median deal size was under $1 billion of assets under
management transacted for the first six months of 2009, marking the first time
since the 1990s that the median transaction size fell below $1 billion in a
six-month period.

"We expect divestitures to remain the driving force in M&A activity through the
second half of the year as the asset management industry faces its most radical
reshaping on record," said Aaron Dorr, New York-based Managing Director at
Jefferies Putnam Lovell.

Divestitures represented 47% of the deals announced in the first-half of 2009,
and included three of the five largest transactions by assets under management.
Divestitures represented 26% of the deals announced in the first-half of 2008.
Cross-border deals fell sharply to 18% of the total from 33% in the first-half
2008, as cautious buyers were reluctant to stray from familiar home markets in
search of targets without stronger indications that recovery was on the way.
Transactions involving alternative investment managers, while down from the
year-earlier period, still represented a respectable 28% of the total, against
37% in the first-half of 2008.

Deal volume in the second quarter of 2009 totaled 35, compared with 52 a year
earlier. However, with BlackRock/BGI, assets transacted surged to $1.7 trillion,
from $227 billion, while deal value jumped to $13.7 billion from $2.3 billion.

The largest transactions announced in the second quarter of 2009 in the global
investment management industry, by assets under management, were:

* BlackRock`s purchase of Barclays Global Investors.
* Aquiline Capital Partners` acquisition of Conning & Company.
* JPMorgan Chase`s acquisition of an undisclosed remainder of majority-owned
subsidiary Highbridge Capital Management.
* Woori Finance`s purchase of Credit Suisse`s 30% interest in joint venture
Woori Credit Suisse Asset Management.

Jefferies Putnam Lovell will publish a comprehensive review of first half 2009
global asset management M&A activity later in July.

About Jefferies Putnam Lovell

Jefferies Putnam Lovell, the division of Jefferies & Company, Inc. focused on
the financial institutions industry, offers a wide range of corporate advisory
services, including mergers and acquisitions advice and capital raising.
Jefferies Putnam Lovell`s global client base is comprised of diversified
financial services firms, institutional and mutual fund managers, alternative
investment managers, banks, broker-dealers, insurers, and financial technology
firms. Putnam Lovell was founded in 1987 and today operates from offices in New
York, San Francisco, and London. Since July 2007, Putnam Lovell has been a
division of Jefferies & Company, Inc., the principal operating subsidiary of
Jefferies Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF). For more information please visit
www.jefferies.com/jpl

About Jefferies

Jefferies, an independent, full-service global securities and investment banking
firm, has served companies and their investors for more than 45 years.
Headquartered in New York City, with offices in more than 25 cities around the
world, Jefferies provides clients with capital markets and financial advisory
services, institutional brokerage, securities research and asset management. The
firm provides investors with fundamental research and trade execution in equity,
equity-linked, and fixed income securities, including corporate bonds, high
yield bonds, US government and agency securities, repo finance, mortgage- and
asset-backed securities, municipal bonds, whole loans and emerging markets debt,
as well as commodities and derivatives. Jefferies offers companies capital
markets, merger and acquisition, restructuring and other financial advisory
services. Jefferies & Company, Inc. is the principal operating subsidiary of
Jefferies Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF: www.jefferies.com).

Jefferies & Company, Inc.
Tom Tarrant, 212-284-2389
ttarrant@Jefferies.com
or
Jefferies International Limited
Desiree Maghoo, 44 20 7029 8085
dmaghoo@jefferies.com
or
CL-Media Relations, LLC
Richard Chimberg, 617-312-4281
rich@cl-media.com

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