Bulletin: Osaic's Announced Acquisition Of Lincoln Financial's Wealth Management Arm Will Likely Raise Leverage Modestly

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Dec. 18, 2023--S&P Global Ratings believes that Osaic Holdings Inc.'s (B/Stable/--) recently announced $700 million acquisition of Lincoln Financial Group's independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisory firms will likely increase Osaic's leverage modestly. Osaic's agreement to acquire Lincoln Financial's wealth management business also includes Lincoln's national network of approximately 1,450 financial advisors and $108 billion total client assets. Although information regarding the final structure of the financing for the transaction isn't yet available, we expect in our base-case scenario that incremental debt will be limited given that Osaic had boosted its on-balance-sheet cash balances (including a $300 million increase when it upsized its term loan in August 2023). As a result, we expect at this

...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Dec. 18, 2023--S&P Global Ratings believes that Osaic Holdings Inc.'s (B/Stable/--) recently announced $700 million acquisition of Lincoln Financial Group's independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisory firms will likely increase Osaic's leverage modestly. Osaic's agreement to acquire Lincoln Financial's wealth management business also includes Lincoln's national network of approximately 1,450 financial advisors and $108 billion total client assets. Although information regarding the final structure of the financing for the transaction isn't yet available, we expect in our base-case scenario that incremental debt will be limited given that Osaic had boosted its on-balance-sheet cash balances (including a $300 million increase when it upsized its term loan in August 2023). As a result, we expect at this time that Osaic will only need a modest increase in debt to complete the transaction, and that its credit metrics will remain commensurate with...

Bulletin