Nuveen Investments Inc, the largest US closed-end fund company, is being acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC for 6.3 billion dollars, the largest buyout in the asset-management industry, according to dpa. The sale price includes 550 million dollars of Nuveen debt, Nuveen said Wednesday. Nuveen shareholders are to receive 65 dollars a share, premium of 20 per cent over Tuesday's closing price. Ben Phillips, managing director of New York-based investment bank Putnam Lovell NBF Securities, told Bloomberg financial news service that the deal was attractive to Madison Dearborn because "asset- management firms throw out so much cash." "Nuveen has very high asset margins," he was quoted as saying. Bloomberg financial news service said it was the largest buyout in the industry to date. Nuveen was founded in 1898 as an underwriter of municipal bonds and currently oversees 64.5 billion dollars of municipal bonds, with 12.2 billion dollars of municipal separate accounts, the company website says.
