(Sharecast News) - Bermuda-based financial services firm Apex Group is reportedly the latest suitor to emerge as a contender to swoop on parts of beleaguered asset management consultancy MJ Hudson.
According to Sky News, Apex - which is backed by an Abu Dhabi state investment fund - plans to table an offer next week for the bulk of MJ Hudson's operations, excluding its legal services arm.
Apex provides services to $3trn worth of client assets. It is part-owned by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, and the private equity firms Carlyle and TA Associates.
City sources told Sky that Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), the adviser handling the sale, had set a deadline of next Thursday for best and final bids.
The fire sale comes amid a deepening crisis at MJ Hudson, which provides a range of services to asset management groups. This week, the firm said an accounting review had uncovered details of loans guaranteed by its chief executive to subsidiaries of the company.
Matthew Hudson, the CEO, resigned last week, while auditor EY quit this month, saying it had lost confidence in management.
Sky said the company has received other takeover interest in a number of its operations from the likes of With Intelligence, which is owned by the investment firm Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), and Inflexion Private Equity.
The appetite of both of those suitors was said to have cooled.
