Sixth Street is in talks to buy Brighthouse for roughly $55/share
Brighthouse held negotiations with Aquarian, but efforts fizzled
Sixth Street deal would value Brighthouse at around $3.1 billion, end long-running saga over insurer's future
By David French
NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Brighthouse Financial BHF.O is in talks to be bought by money manager Sixth Street after negotiations with Aquarian Holdings cooled last month, three people familiar with the matter said.
Deal negotiations with Sixth Street and its insurance affiliate, Talcott, were revived in recent days after Brighthouse spent weeks in exclusive talks with Aquarian. The Brighthouse board ultimately did not like the funding proposal with Aquarian's final bid, the sources said. Aquarian, an insurance and asset management-focused investment firm, is backed by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala and RedBird Capital Partners.
Sixth Street's offer for Brighthouse is worth roughly $55 per share, two of the sources added, which would value Brighthouse at around $3.14 billion. While that would be a discount to the Aquarian proposal of nearly $70 per share, which Reuters reported last month, the price would be a roughly 14% premium to Brighthouse's closing share price on Wednesday.
The sources cautioned that no deal between Sixth Street and Brighthouse was guaranteed, and the talks could end without an agreement. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations.
Sixth Street, Brighthouse, and Talcott declined to comment. Aquarian did not respond to a comment request.
(Reporting by David French in New York. Editing by Dawn Kopecki and Rod Nickel)
((davidj.french@tr.com))