MutualFundWire.com: Amboian Buys a Local Ally

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Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Amboian Buys a Local Ally

John Amboian is buying one of Nuveen's [profile] local allies.

Yesterday William Adams, senior executive vice president of global structured products at Nuveen, confirmed that the Chicago-based TIAA-CREF subsidiary is buying Incapital's unit investment trust platform. The pricing and terms of the deal were not disclosed.

John Amboian
Nuveen Investments
Chief Executive Officer

Lynne Marek of Crain's Chicago Business reported on the deal. The paper notes that Incapital, also based in Chitown, is led by Tom Ricketts, chairman of the Chicago Cubs major league baseball team. Ricketts is also the chairman of Incapital, which he co-founded in 1999.

Wells Fargo Securities advised Nuveen on the deal, while Grail Partners advised Incapital. The deal is slated to close by the end of Q2 2016.

The two sides have been working together for some time. Nuveen and Incapital have been teaming up since early 2014, the same year TIAA-CREF bought Nuveen. Nuveen's boutiques serve as portfolio consultant, and Nuveen has helped out with marketing and distribution, for some of Incapital's unit trusts.

Nuveen has also been sponsoring the Cubs since 2005, and last year the mutual fund shop amped up its support.

The plan, per a statement from Nuveen, is for the fund firm to bring over "key Incapital personnel currently supporting the Unit Trust platform in the areas of sales, product development and marketing, IT and operations."

"We are pleased to formally bring together Nuveen and Incapital's UIT teams to build on our excellent work together and enhance our ability to deliver quality investment solutions and service to our clients," Adams states. "We are also pleased to add the high-quality investment capabilities of Incapital's portfolio consultant partners to the investment capabilities of Nuveen's investment affiliates and TIAA Asset Management that will enable us to offer a compelling array of UIT portfolio strategies."

On the Incapital side, CEO John DesPrez puts the deal into the context of trying to "focus more sharply on [Incapital's] core business of providing risk-managed investment solutions."

As of September 30, Nuveen had about $220 billion in AUM.

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