Carlyle Group’s majority stake in TCW Group values the troubled money-management firm at $750 million — less than half of the value the firm fetched in a 2001 sale, The Post has learned.
Carlyle, the DC private-equity powerhouse headed by David Rubenstein, announced Thursday that it had acquired a 60-percent stake in TCW from French banking giant Societe Generale but didn’t disclose the financial terms.
The deal for TCW — which has been rocked by defections, ownership turmoil and the credit crisis — is seen as a classic buyout of a beaten-down firm. The Los Angeles asset manager oversees $131 billion in assets, primarily bond investments for endowments and pensions.
Carlyle is expected to help TCW grow its assets with an eye toward either selling it to an another PE or financial firm, or taking it public in five to seven years, sources said.
Carlyle used two of its funds — the Financial Services Fund and US Buyout Fund — to acquire the 60 percent stake, while TCW employees will see their ownership grow to 40 percent. Carlyle and TCW declined to comment on the details of the transaction.
TCW was buffeted by the bitter ouster of star money manager Jeff Gundlach, whom the firm accused of stealing trade secrets and talent after he left in 2009 to start his own firm, Doubleline Capital.
TCW’s management also chaffed under SocGen’s ownership during the last decade. In 2001, the French bank acquired a majority stake in TCW, valuing it at around $1.7 billion.
SocGen, which recently wrote down the $1.7 billion investment by $250 million, had been trying to unload the TCW stake for several years at a higher price, sources said.