Jefferies Nears Deal to Sell its Oak Hill Capital Stake to #Kuwait-Backed Wafra - Bloomberg

Jefferies Nears Deal to Sell its Oak Hill Capital Stake to Kuwait-Backed Wafra - Bloomberg

Wafra, an alternative-asset manager that invests on behalf of Kuwait, has agreed to acquire a minority stake in private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners from Jefferies Financial Group Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A transaction may be announced in coming weeks, said one of the people, all of whom requested anonymity as the information is private.

Jefferies and Wafra representatives declined to comment. Oak Hill Capital didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jefferies bought a 15% stake in Oak Hill Capital in 2019, when the firm planned to make it the anchor investment in a fund managed by Stonyrock Partners. Stonyrock planned to raise as much as $1 billion to buy stakes in private equity, real estate, infrastructure and other asset classes, but Jefferies has since wound down the effort, dubbed Stonyrock Alt Fund I LP. The New York-based lender began exploring a sale of its interest, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.

Oak Hill Capital traces its roots to Texas billionaire Robert M. Bass’s family office, and is led by managing partners Tyler Wolfram, Brian Cherry and Steve Puccinelli. The firm has raised about $20 billion in capital commitments since its inception, it said last month.

New York-based Wafra, which invests on behalf of sovereign wealth and pension funds, has previously acquired minority stakes in other alternative-asset managers including Thompson Street Capital Partners, TowerBrook Capital Partners, Stone Point Capital and Siris Capital Group.

Capital Constellation, a platform managed by Wafra, has backed smaller firms including Ara Partners, Avista Capital Partners, Pollen Street and All Seas Capital.