Good morning to all of you. Thank you for being there. On short notice, I will make this presentation together with Cyril Marie, who's in charge of the development of the asset management platform. Here with us, we also obviously have David Darmon, who's a member of the Management Board. We are all very happy to present to you this important operation, the acquisition of Monroe Capital. It is a very transformational transaction, which is fully in line with the strategic roadmap that we presented to you back in March 2023. You remember we've said that we will develop a dual model in which we will start to develop an asset management platform. We've made the acquisition of IK Partners, which we announced a year ago.
We're making today the acquisition of Monroe Capital, which complements that and creates a true asset management platform now with above $31 billion of assets under management and $160 million of FRE, but I will come back to the detail of that, so the acquisition of Monroe Capital is really a transformational step. IK Partners was the first move, but now we create truly a third-party asset management platform. Monroe Capital itself is a key player of the low and mid-market debt capital in the US, private debt capital in the US, which is a very wide market and a very attractive market. It has been founded in 2004. It's headquartered in Chicago. It's been founded by Ted Koenig, who's still the Chairman and CEO of the company and will stay for the years to come. It is one of the most highly regarded companies in that field in the US.
It has a nationwide network to cover the U.S. mid-market from origination to credit. It has a very disciplined credit underwriting policy, and it's a former banker that talked to you. I can tell you we've looked at it, and it's a first-class way to work. It has a large and very diverse, very global investor base, which is very important to us. But we think we can help them still grow that base in Europe, and we can use that base also to help us grow IK Partners LPs tomorrow. As we did with IK Partners, we will use our permanent capital as a tool to grow the company and to help it grow, and we always think about how much do we want to commit in order to help the company to grow, and that depends on the size of the company.
We will commit EUR 800 million of sponsor money to help grow the company, and there will be on long-term EUR 200 million money that will be invested through GP commitment, which is basically generally 0.7% of any funds. Those sponsor money is here to help the company to grow and to develop, and we think it makes a lot of sense in order to create value, both through the return on the investment, but also because by helping it grow, you create significant more value tomorrow, and we think it is part of the strength of our model. It is a transformational milestone to us because we are really creating a platform. As I mentioned, we were the shareholder of one asset manager with IK Partners, first-class asset management in Europe.
I, again, want to convey the fact that IK Partners is absolutely a great team with great performance, that fundraising is going very well at IK Partners. They are in a phase of globally raising EUR 6 billion throughout the different strategies, and this is going very well. That's going very well thanks to the quality of the team and their performance. But here, we're now adding a second leg, which is the Monroe Capital. Credit is a very, very deep market, private credit, and specifically in the U.S., but Cyril will come back to that. We think that to have a U.S. firm in that area is a key advantage. It exposes us more to the U.S. economy, which we think long-term is a great thing because it has demonstrated that it is more dynamic than Europe.
But also, it's part of the US market, which is the most dynamic one and more innovative one, and we can use that to develop in Europe afterwards. The transformation of the model to become also a dual model to become an asset manager is one that will make us to be a more cash-generative and predictable business model that will allow us to continue increasing our dividend policy in the future so that the return to the shareholder is high. The platform will be, as I mentioned, $31 billion of AUM, $160 million of FRE now. The initial transaction is $1 billion 130 million for 75% of acquisition of Monroe shares and 20% of the carried interest, future and past.
Total consideration could be increased by an earnout, which will depend on the growth of the FRE, which will then make that the value of the price paid will range from 14.7-18.5 times the 2025 FRE. Obviously, if we pay 18.5-25 FRE, it's because the FRE has grown by more than 26% compound annual growth during the period, which means that if you look to then the price paid compared to the FRE in 2027, it will be a low multiple then, which will be good news. We're also paying 4.2 times for the pre-tax PRE, which is not a high price. Strong value creation through that. I mentioned return on sponsor money, stronger predictable cash flow, performance-related earnings that will flow from next year in our earnings.
With this acquisition, we are confident that we can, without any new acquisition, reach the €150 million FRE target that Wendel has put as a target for 2027 by only basing ourselves on the internal growth potential of Monroe Capital and IK Partners. Now, I will leave the floor after that introduction to Cyril Marie. Cyril has joined Wendel a little bit more than a year ago. He is very experienced in the asset management industry, and Cyril is in charge of developing the asset management platform, and he will go through, he will take you through Monroe Capital. Cyril.
Thank you, Laurent. So, page three: so, Monroe, as Laurent said, $20 billion of assets. It's a leader in the U.S. middle market private credit. So, they have the critical size, and at the same time, they are very focused on what they do in the private credit. So, they target firms between five and 40 million of EBITDA. They have a very long track record because they have been created in 2004. They have a very large team because credit is based on process and team. So, as you can see, 270 people, 110 investment professionals. We'll see later on that they have a very broad origination team. That's clearly an edge for them. They have a lot of diversification area because they have the critical size. And as Laurent said, as you can see on the map, they have really a footprint everywhere in the U.S.
They do only U.S. private credit, but we believe that the quality of this team will allow us to create a more global private credit platform. If we move to the next page, page 4, first characteristic of Monroe is the growth. They have delivered strong performance for their clients, and also they deliver strong performance for their shareholders. So as you can see, one important figure, plus 20% carry over the last 10 years, with two main effects. The first one is that their market is fast-growing. As Laurent said, the private credit is a fast-growing market. It's developing, and there are new areas of growth in this market. In this market, Monroe's positioning is very strong.
They have been in a position to create a new engine of growth and diversify their book of business, and it has led to a very strong growth over a very long period of time. Following page, page five, after growth, the second characteristic of Monroe is diversification. Even if they are very focused on what they do to deliver strong performance, they have been in a position to develop a very well-diversified book of business. Diversification by client type, as you can see the pie chart in the middle, insurance companies, public pensions, family offices, retail. We talk a lot about the development of the retail in the private asset. They are very well-positioned to also tackle this market, and they have a lot of experience in the field. Second element of diversification by geography.
For sure, there are U.S. firms that started from Chicago, but they are now diversifying their book of business. They have more and more international clients, and we believe that there is strong potential of growth for us outside of the U.S. with the combination with IK Partners and Wendel. We'll discuss it later on. And the last element of diversification, the third pie chart, is that the way they deliver their products, so U.S. private credit middle markets, they have developed the full range of products. So you can have it through closed-end funds, but also when you are big clients through SMAs, it's very important for insurance companies through CLOs. And also, they have also what we call the BDCs. It's a retail vehicle for U.S. clients.
So as you can see, very focused on what they do, but very well-diversified in terms of book of businesses in order to have value engine of growth. I think it's very important. And I may add just one thing. They have more than 150 clients, global institutional LPs, and they have a very strong distribution team with 37%. Then, so diversification, maybe we can then go to page seven, and this is backed by a very strong team. I can tell you we spend a lot of time to understand the quality of the team. So here you have on this page the senior management, the founder, Ted Koenig, and the rest of the team. But behind this, you have a very deep team with various layers of management. Credit, as we said, is based on process.
So they have 22 equity partners, and you will see when Laurent will present the transactions. They will stay exposed to the equity. And behind them, you have 70 managing directors, and in each specific function of the organization, you have a very deep team with a lot of experience. The rotation is low. The culture of the firm is very strong, and you can feel the entrepreneurial dynamic at each level of the organization, and it's very important to us. Following page, page eight, maybe a bit more detail quickly on what they do, just to give you a flavor of really the expertise of Monroe. Two things. The first one is why the middle market, why we consider that the middle market is a very interesting sweet spot for us.
The first thing is that it's consistent with what we did with IK Partners because IK Partners focus is also the middle market. So it's a common run for our affiliates, let's say. So why the middle market? First, you have higher spread. It's less competitive, and in fact, you have a barrier to entry because if you don't have an origination team to really be in connection with the local economy and finance the local economy, you cannot have access to those deals. So we think it's very interesting. The second thing, it's a smaller deal, more diversification in the funds. We believe it's very interesting for the exposure to the U.S. economy. You get also better terms, whether it's covenants, and also you have less leverage. And one also very important thing, even if they don't do equity, they do direct lending. I can tell you they are very active.
For 80% of their transactions, they are what they call agents, meaning that they are the leader in the connection in the financing of the transaction. So they can impose their terms. They can impose their covenant. And then after the origination of the loan, the way they monitor and the way they act to monitor the transaction, they are very involved in this like an equity manager. So I think it's a key characteristic of Monroe. And then in the not the pie chart, but in the other part of the slide, you can see their key characteristics. So focus on the middle market, local and national platform to have origination. So they originate transactions that the others don't have, and I think it's a key element to deliver performance. The origination team is totally different from the underwriting team.
It means that they have this local presence, but on the other side, the investment decision is centralized with a strong experience in terms of investments. In the way they manage the portfolios also is very interesting, and they have what they call this credit first and zero loss experience. And it's done, as I said, by more than 100 people at the level of the organization. Now, to give you a bit more detail on why the U.S. and why we consider that Monroe is the right platform to develop Wendel Asset Management Platform in the private credit. So the U.S. credit market, very broad, fast-growing, and also very mature. It means that the dynamic of the private credit is well advanced in the U.S., whatever the client type, the vehicle, the regulation.
So it's mature, but in the sense that it's very well organized between the investors, the asset management companies, and at the same time, it's fast-growing. The potential is still there. You know the dynamic of the U.S. economies, and when we talk about the middle market, it's 10 trillion of GDP. It's more than 200,000 businesses, so it's very well diversified. And you can see also on this slide the quality of the middle market versus the large cap. For sure, we know that the middle market, the businesses have different characteristics, but you can see the quality of the spread and also the fact that you can get better terms in this type of market. Following page, so why Monroe is the right partner for Wendel to enter in the debt segment? So first, as I said, the U.S. market, very interesting, very broad, very mature.
So based on Monroe, based on the biggest market in the private credit, we can build a global private credit platform. And we believe that the management has the mindset to do so. Then they are very focused on what they do with a very strong entrepreneurial dynamic. They have the critical size. They have already the experience to work with institutional clients and retail clients. They have a differentiated approach to private credit. As Laurent said, we like the fact that you have a strong origination on one side and the underwriting team on the other side. The fact that they act as agents, so it means that they are very active in the way they manage the credit. We think it's very important. And the last element is that it's supported by this very strong team, 270 people.
And the way they have built the firm, they are ready to go through the management transition. They have strong ambition, as I said, 23 equity partners and a very broad team. And on top of that, it's very important for all of us. They have delivered very strong performance for their clients, for sure, because they have delivered a 10% IRR on the unlevered basis over the long term. So over the last 15 years, during the period where we were in a low-rate environment, they have delivered superior performance with relatively low default rate and with a very strong recovery rate. I will finish with what do we bring. So Monroe is fast-growing. We believe that with this transaction, we can accelerate their growth as we are doing for IK Partners. And for this, we have four levers. The first one is we provide capital.
It's key to develop the business. We don't provide capital just to enlarge the business. We provide capital to grow the business with new initiatives, with new products in order to create value for the firm as a shareholder. And this, as you can see, it's a very significant commitment, EUR 800 million for the sponsoring and EUR 200 million to finance the GP commitment. That's our first contribution to Monroe. The second one is also very important. Each new affiliate will benefit from Wendel Network to develop partnership. The capital formation is a key element in the development of private asset. And we consider that when you join Wendel, you will have access to a strategic partnership. And today, we can announce that we have an engaged discussion with AXA. We'll come to this.
I think AXA is already a very significant LP of Monroe, and we will sign a strategic partnership with them. The third element, it's very important when we look at each new affiliate, we check the compatibility and the complementarity of the LP base. Here, we have a very concrete example. If we look at IK Partners client base and Monroe client base, there is a lot of complementarity. We believe that there is a strong cross-selling potential. As we know, it's always more easy to sell a product to an existing client. We work on it to really reinforce the cross-selling between the two platforms. The last one, that's the long-term ambition of the Wendel Asset Management Platform, is to reinforce and to be additive to their existing fundraising capabilities by creating a centralized fundraising platform in new markets for them.
And we can take the example of the Middle East and APAC, where for sure we can accelerate the development of Monroe. Laurent?
Thank you, Cyril, for that highlight on Monroe. Maybe a little bit of a focus on the partnership also with AXA. AXA IM Prime, through its GP stake fund, has entered with us into active discussion to invest alongside us in the capital. So we're buying 75%, but we may sell, well, we probably will sell a small proportion of that up to 3% to AXA IM Capital so that they are investors alongside us, and they are partners to us in order to invest into the company. As you know, AXA is one of the largest private credit investors. It needs to invest the money of its insurance client in long-term assets or yielding assets like private credit. They are very sophisticated to that.
They are a long-standing investor within Monroe. They know the quality of Monroe, and we've discussed significantly with them to make sure that we've made the right assessment of the team. And I can tell you we've given a lot of comfort from their long-term relationship with them to that. So this is a very important element because it comforts our approach, and that will help us doing further strategic initiatives on that side. So yes, this is the partnership with AXA. Now, the transaction itself, what is important is like the IK Partners transaction. It is a transaction that is structured in a way that we have alignment of interest between the different parties.
It is a transaction where we will leave to Monroe its autonomy to manage the business, to keep the control of the Investment Committee so that the trust that the LPs have put in the team is untouched, and we can still continue raising funds. This is also a long-term vision, so the people are here to stay. We have put, well, we've got the earnouts. We've got put-call mechanisms that make that there are people have long-term ties to the economic delivery of the company. And there's no leavers. There's incentivization for the new generation of partners, and there is on every element identified succession plan. Obviously, we will chair the Monroe Board. We will do our oversight. We will manage together with the team this strategy like we did for and we're doing for IK Partners.
By the way, there's no conflict of interest also, which is very important that that's an element between the different firms. The Monroe product and IK Partners product are not competing at all, and they are not competing at all either with Wendel direct investment platform. Alignment of interest today is also very important to us. So I talk about the earnouts. We talk about the 25% puts and calls, which is an element that will align the interest of the full management with us. We're alignment of interest between us, Wendel, and the LPs through the commitment we're putting in the funds. So we will be committing as a GP commitment in all fundraise up to EUR 200 million. It will take some time because if the GP commitment is 0.7% of the funds. So to deploy EUR 200 million will mean that they have raised above EUR 20 billion of capital.
But we also put 800 of sponsor money, which is very different, which is helping run the company by setting new initiatives where then you can leverage to get new clients in those initiatives. And we think it makes sense. We always calibrate the sponsor money to the size of the company so that we can relate how much sponsor money we're putting for itself. So the return we have on the sponsor money, but also for the value we can create for the firm by creating growth to it. And we have our shared, like all other partners, of the carried interest, which is an element of interest with the teams and with the LPs. We have 20% of the attributable of the carried interest for past and future company. It's different from IK. IK, we didn't bump the past carried interest.
Here, the past carried interest is within the GP. So we're buying 20%. We're buying the full of it. Maybe this transaction, which is page 14, I've already covered much of what is here, the EUR 1.130 billion initial consideration, which is really buying the 75% and the 20% legacy and future carried interest. Earnout of 255, which will be paid in cash in 2028, depending on the compound annual growth of the FRE during the period. The 255 is an objective that is reached if the CAGR is above 26% at that time, which means a significant growth during the period. The remaining 25% will be acquired over eight years with a pre-tax FRE multiple, which is directly depending on the realized growth of FRE. The transaction will be financed by cash on our balance sheet. We have multiple sources of cash.
The LTV pro forma as of June, this transaction is around 19%. Closing is expected to occur in first half. We expect as soon as first quarter, but let's say first half to be safe. Page 15 gives you the same description of this mechanism. The total consideration for the 75%, including the earnout, will be between 14.7-18.5 times pre-tax FRE. If we pay 18.5 times pre-tax FRE, it's because the growth of the FRE in the period has been very important. And the resulting, should we pay that, that will mean that the resulting price we paid at that time will be something like 11 times the 2027 FRE multiple, which is a good sign that we've been successful with the transactions, obviously. Now, what does it mean? It really means that we're becoming a platform in asset management.
Here, we've put page 17 back, the page we've presented to you. I think first time was a year and a half ago. We're moving along this. We're really creating a sizable and comprehensive third-party private asset management through both external and now probably more organic growth and generating significant value through what we want, generating regular cash flow through the management fees and capital appreciation through the carried interest, sponsor money return, and obviously the valuation of the GP itself. I don't come back on the benefit from the platform. I think Cyril mentioned, but obviously now that we've got IK Partners and Monroe Capital, we will start to develop the part on the strategic client cross-selling, creating the global distribution platform. In terms of cost saving here, there would be little because there's no overlap.
But obviously, if we want to develop, and we do want to do so, the Monroe platform in Europe, we will be able to use the infrastructure that we already have in terms of AIFM and so on in order to be faster getting onto the market. I don't go back on the unique benefit from our platform, but I can tell you that it does resonate with the best team that we see. That's why we only have premium asset on that. We will not have in different vertical different teams. We just want to make sure that we always have premium teams for each of the verticals. As a result of that, the platform will manage this is a little bit more than 31 billion EUR. By the way, we were zero a year ago. We have two fast-growing verticals, private equity and private debt.
It boosts top-tier managers of private assets, IK Partners and Monroe, and with global exposure, Europe and the US. The amount of this platform will generate, and I'll come back on next slide, EUR 455 million of revenues and EUR 160 million of fee-related earnings. I'm underlining the 160 million of FRE because if you compare to the different platforms throughout Europe, this is a very sizable platform now. Our share of that, because we don't have 100% of most companies today, is EUR 101 million. We are confident that this share will reach the EUR 150 million target that we had put to ourselves in 2027 based on the growth of Monroe and IK Partners. We have invested EUR 1.4 billion to acquire these two companies and start to prepare and create the platform, but that will create strong cash yield to shareholders, and you will see more predictable cash flows coming over time.
This platformization will help us accelerate the growth and will help us increase our profitability over time. Next slide, you see the full P&L of the platform, $430 million of management fees. This is a pro forma 25 full year, $430 million management fees, which is roughly 140 basis points to the assets, carried interest of $25 million, which means total revenue of $455 million, pre-tax profit globally of $184 million, out of which $160 million is FRE, which means an FRE margin close to a little bit above 105%. The net profit, including the tax benefits of the structures, and by doing the transaction in the U.S., we will be able to make a goodwill amortization there, which will lower our tax rate to 15% of what we bought. So the net profit that we will extract from the platform, Wendel's share will be $105 million next year expected.
Wendel now, on page 20, manages close to €40 billion of assets, €7.4 billion on the principal investment. And you've seen that we've closed recently the acquisition of Globe Educate, which is a very high premium quality asset that we've bought. We are 50% together with Providence on this one, and a third-party asset management platform, which has €31 billion of AUM, 41% coming from IK Partners in the private equity space, 59% coming from Monroe. This is a platform of 480 people in 10 countries. Just to underline that it is now becoming a good platform. A key takeaway from that is, well, we're moving on. We're moving on the strategies that we announced. We have two pillars, principal investment, where we're allocating capital allocation towards growth business. We have been able to distribute cash through those businesses, either through dividend, dividend recap, or sale.
We're considering that the investment in principal investment is a source of strong IRR return. Our target is above 15% on average, which helps NAV growth and helps dividend on the other side. But it's also generating permanent capital that we can invest in the development of the asset management platform. The asset management platform is only tier one asset managers, strong growth prospect with double-digit growing potential, strong predictable cash flow, and it's a source of future capital gain on the sponsor money, but also the GP interest in value growth. But it's also a source of cash flow, as I mentioned, which means that implicitly we will be able to have more ability to pay higher dividend, which is really the return to shareholders. As you say, we've committed to a pretty strict distribution policy.
We've already increased the dividend by 20% this year, and we will further continue doing so in the coming years, taking into account the fact that we will distribute the vast majority of the return generated by the asset management to our shareholders. So, well, I think it's really a tipping point for Wendel. We are really becoming a true sizable private asset manager. We are enlarging our exposure to the U.S. economy, which I think is important, but it's also not a new territory to us. It is well known to us. We know this market well. As we've been active in the U.S. for many years, we have a team there, which is a seasoned team. We've made over 2 billion of investment in the past. And as individuals, we have significant experience with the asset management business in the U.S., thanks to our past experience.
We are doing active work on our principal investment portfolio to create capital appreciation with permanent capital, and we will work on the rotation of our portfolio in the coming months. Our number one priority today is to build the platform and asset rotation. You have an Investor Day in two or three days, no, on Friday, not an Investor Day. You will have the third quarter earnings on Friday and the Investor Day, where we will give you more detail on December 6th in Paris. Here we are for this short presentation, and we are at your disposal to answer any question you may have. Thank you.
Thank you. To ask a question, you'll need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again.
If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. Thank you. We will now take our first question. First question is from the line of Joren Van Aken from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, everyone. Just at the back of the press release, so you mentioned 31 billion of AUM, 430 million of management fees, so about 140 basis points in a fee rate. But keeping in mind that private credit is about 60% of the AUM, my estimate would be that IK Partners' fee rate is close to 200 basis points, and then Monroe is close to 100 basis points. Do these calculations make sense, or am I missing something here?
Obviously, I cannot give you the detail exactly, but the private equity is more on a 220 basis, and the private debt is more on a 120 basis, 20 being always the carried interest.
Yep. Yep. Indeed. Okay. That makes sense. And then a second question, if I may. It's on the AXA stake. So you will sell part of your 75% to them up to 3%, but I suppose that their fund would need to generate liquidity at some point as well. So is there a timeline that you have for their divestment? Is there a lockup period that they have? And if they decide to sell to, for example, do you guys, as Wendel, do you have a first choice on the stake of AXA? Any details there?
Yeah.
This is a private transaction, but yes, it is a long-term, at least five to seven years investment, more seven years, by the way. And yes, we have a first that we will have sort of priority ability to buy the estates. But it's a long-term vision there.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from the line of Grégoire Hermann from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Just a few, please. Just maybe on the centralized fundraising platform that you mentioned, and I think especially focused on MENA and APAC, could you please be a bit more specific here on what you intend to do? Is this basically somehow kind of lack that you've identified at IK Partners and Monroe, and then basically you would like to build a better fundraising platform in this region? Yeah.
If you could be a bit more specific here on how does that fit basically with your two alternative asset managers, that would be helpful, please. The second question would be on the integration now of Monroe. So now that you have a second acquisition and that you have a start of a platform, in the past, you mentioned that you would be inclined to do some works on the back office structure, potentially the holdings in Luxembourg and so on. Would you wait to have the two acquisitions somehow synergized on the back-end platform before working on a third acquisition or before actually acquiring a third asset managers? Yeah, pretty much that question. And then can you give us insight about the FRE growth of Monroe over the past three to five years, please? Thank you. Okay.
Let me start. The fundraising capacity, we've mentioned specifically MENA and Asia because to be able to fund a fundraising platform, you need size. You need size and you need diversity, and we think that the fact that we can now bring two investors in those areas, Japan, Korea, well, Asia globally, but Taiwan, or China even, which are big areas of parts of capitals, Australia, for a part also, you need to be able to speak to those investors on a regular basis with different types of products, so we think that now we have the two we can entertain to have good quality people on the ground to be doing so. Same for MENA. MENA, you see, most of the investors in MENA make significant investment. They don't like to make small tickets.
So you need to come with a broader range of product and broader, so yes, we will develop. I'm not saying it is a weakness because you've seen that Monroe has one office in Korea, South Korea. They have one office in Abu Dhabi. But we think we can reinforce that and have the ability, because we have now the two of them, to entertain a high-quality platform with good people. So we will work on that. We will also develop and look and work in developing that also for some European clients, key clients. So we're thinking about it. So the objective is to have people dedicated to the global platform that will be entertaining the large client in making sure that we can develop more assets under management. So about the integration, Monroe being a U.S. company, there will be no benefit on the back office synergy yet.
Obviously, I'm not going to migrate Monroe on a Luxembourg AIFM. So they have their own US type of fund and their dedicated regulation. However, as I mentioned, one of our goals is to help Monroe to develop a European business. Doing so, yes, we will use the actual existing support of what we have in order to develop that because it will make a lot of sense. So that will be a sort of way not to spend new money, but to use the existing infrastructure in order to do so.
The third question was about—I didn't talk—the FRE growth of the last question.
FRE, Cyril. So I think it's in line with the—yeah, it's in line with the revenues. You have a slight margin effect.
So the more they grow, the more they improve their pre-tax margin, but it's so slightly above the revenue growth and the AUM growth that you have in the page four. Page four.
Okay. That's clear. Thank you. Yeah.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from the line of Alexandre Gérard from CIC Market Solutions. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. And first of all, congratulations for that transaction. Four quick questions on my side. First question, how did you source that deal? Was it a competitive process, or did you have any particular relationships with any of the partners at Monroe? Second question, can you elaborate a bit on the $200 million of GP commitment? What is it exactly? I mean, is it some kind of capital increase in the future to try for the GP to develop itself?
Third question, can you give us maybe an idea of the trend of the evolution of the management fee rate at Monroe since the inception of the company in 2004? And the last question is regarding the financial flexibility at Wendel. So you mentioned an LTV of 19%. Is it a maximum for you? And what are you going to do in terms of development, in terms of filling the gaps in your platform? Are you going to make a pause, or will you still look for new initiatives in terms of M&A in the infra world, etc.? Thank you.
I will start from the latest, the last one. 19% is not a level we want to increase. So we will take, and the fact that we made Monroe our priority, as I tell you, is to integrate and to create a platform.
So we will really spend our time on that. And we will, throughout time, create additional financial capacity through asset rotation. And then we will envisage either making new acquisitions in principal investment or making additional acquisitions on our platform. But our priority today is not this one. Our priority is really to create the platform and work on our assets to increase our asset rotation. How did we source the transaction? Well, we've known Monroe for many years because whoever knows well the private asset market in the U.S. knows Monroe. And as we've been active in this market for years, we knew them. However, we've met them on a one-to-one basis months ago. We've entered into discussion. However, in this field, in this world, every discussion can be. You cannot believe you're alone.
I think Monroe is a great asset, and they had potentially other opportunities and other possibilities. We do believe that our value proposition is a key differentiator factor. And I think that's why Monroe took and decided to go with us because we have a different model. And I think Cyril went through what do we bring to them, and I think they really fully recognize that. So, Cyril, do you want to add something to that? I think it's pretty clear. Then there were two questions. The GP commitment is basically. It's not commitment on the GP. It's what the GP commits together with the teams on a daily, on each fund. On each fund, you commit something like 0.7% of the fund to align interest between the GP and the fund. And that's what we are talking about, the GP commitment.
To deploy the 200 million means that you will have to raise over 20 billion of assets before we invest those. It will take some time to be deployed, but it's important that the GP commits some minimum amount of money. It depends on fund-by-fund discussion, discussion with LPs, but it's the trend in the management fee. Yes, Cyril?
I think what is key, for sure, there is always the competition in fees. But as I mentioned, the fact that they have this specific focus, they have created barrier to entry because it's very difficult to have access to those loans. It means that LPs are ready to pay fees, and they can maintain the fees. When we look at, in the past, the evolution of their fees, they have maintained their fees at a good level.
And it's because they have this focus and this access to specific deals that allow them to maintain their fees. That being said, you have also the benefit of the fact that they have retail clients. And the retail client, as you know, the retail business, the fees are higher. And on top of that, the capital are permanent because it's evergreen vehicles.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you. No further questions on the phone lines at the moment. So I will now hand back to you to answer any questions via the webcast. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a question from Mourad Lahmidi. Could you provide the actual dollar amount of management fees, performance fees, and fee-related earnings for Monroe on a standalone basis, please? We've disclosed in the communication and in the presentation all what we can to disclose.
All numbers of Monroe will be integrated from the day they will be part of us within our asset management disclosure. You have the numbers of Monroe fully integrated in the proforma numbers that we've given page, whatever it is, forget the name of the page, 19. That includes all numbers of Monroe expected numbers of 2025. Thank you. From Mourad again, could you split the $1.1 billion paid between FRE and PRE? Not in multiple, but in value. Well, I give you the multiples because, as I say, for reasons which are linked to the fact that it is a private company today, I cannot give you the detail of that. But you've got the multiples, and I let you make your own assumption to that. Thank you. How will you deploy the $800 million of sponsor money on private debt or other strategies such as infra?
I will pass. Globally, it will be new initiatives launched by not existing ones, new initiatives launched by Monroe. Obviously, their business is private debt, but they can do new initiatives. I pass the floor to—and that will be, by the way, we will deploy that over time because it's new initiatives. Each time we launch a new product and so on.
As Laurent said, sponsoring, the objective is to create new products to get fees. It will stay in private credit first and so loan to SMEs in the US. They need to create new types of vehicles for the same strategies in order to reach new clients. That's the first way to grow the business.
The second development is to go to new assets potentially, but probably not infrastructure, but new verticals on the private credit in order to diversify the book of business. Or developing the European business, which is one of the ways, developing the European geographical diversification in private credit too. So this is a long-term commitment. It will deploy itself within time and with new products and with new strategies. Thank you. Questions from Geoffroy Michalet on the LTV. The circa 19% is not including the € 800 million of sponsor money. Isn't it? If it's not, then the LTV would be at circa 24% above the 20% threshold. Can you expand on that?
The commitment is a long-term one. So it's not immediate. It will be deployed throughout time. And the way it is done is that we anticipate what will be commit.
Once it's committed, by the way, the full amount of money is taken in the LTV, even if it's not called. So here, it's a global commitment. Each time it becomes a true commitment, it goes directly into the—and it's not only the called money, but it's the full commitment money that goes into it. We anticipate here in our calculations some direct commitment into it. But then it will come over time when it proceeds. So again, it's new products that will be developed. It will flow through the transaction, and it will be part of the general cash management and balance sheet management that we have at Wendel. So it's pretty easy. And so now, maybe you can go on the philosophy of what we do when we do sponsor money.
It's really to adapt our sponsor money to the size of the company we are investing in in order to make sure that each time we put sponsor money, that creates significant value through the sponsor money, but also through the creation of value at the GP level.
Yeah. The way we size, we frame the sponsor money is really to create value for the shareholders. So for us, as a shareholder of the GP, each decision of sponsor money will be based not only on the individual performance of the investment, but mainly on the value creation as a shareholder. And we'll do it product by product over time because, as we know, to create a product, launch a product, it takes time. You cannot do it in six months. It takes a lot of time. So you have to see this as a long-term commitment.
But we will manage this thing like we've done in IK, by the way, throughout time. And we know how to also—and we're also thinking about ways to fund separately. So part of that, which is not yet something we were doing in the past, but it's something we're thinking about. But it's not yet applied. Thank you. Still from Geoffroy Michalet, do you still have the goal to develop infra or the private market solution before 2027 since you think you can achieve the €150 million FRE by 2027 with IK and Monroe alone? I still have the goal that the more you have, I would say, diversified private asset platform, the better. Our goal is to do it only with quality teams, and we don't want to be into any rush.
So, as I say, my priority now is to integrate Monroe, and we will concentrate ourselves into that. Now, long-term, does it make still sense to have the rest? Yes, it does. And we will study opportunities when they will come. Once we've worked on integration of Monroe, creating the platform, make some asset rotation, and then we'll start to look at other things. But it's not a rush. We're creating a true quality platform. We only want great quality teams. But yes, it does make sense. Is 27 a goal by itself? What we've said about 27 is that we wanted, in terms of financial, to reach at least EUR 150 million of FRE. This is something we believe can be done through the platform that we have now.
It doesn't mean that we don't have interest in other class of assets, but we'll do that with the right reason and the right quality of teams.
Last question from Geoffroy. Your mode l is also investing your own balance sheet in new companies or supporting M&A in your portfolio company. Don't you feel stuck by your current LTV? Do you intend to ease this LTV in the short term?
We don't intend to ease. I mean, we don't intend to. I mean, we've made, I think, two weeks ago, a EUR 630 million investment in Globe Educate, which is a high-quality asset. David could testify from that. So yes, we are very active in our portfolio companies. Do we want to ease our 19%? Our goal is not to go above any 20% of our LTV. So obviously, asset rotation will be part of our policy. Yeah.
We continue to be very active on bolt-on acquisitions. As you know, we announced the Weilburger acquisition for Stahl. And since signing the Globe Educate investment, we secured two additional acquisitions for this platform as well. So we are still very active in our portfolio companies. Thank you.
Two questions from Nicolas Broutin. Why does Monroe management sell? And is there any opportunity to disintermediate banks through Monroe financing business? Why do they sell? Well, I think they recognize that it makes sense to be in a broader platform. The fact that what we've said, I think there's a slide. I forget the name of the page that shows what we bring to them. They've recognized that as being an element. And they see that the industry is concentrated, is starting to concentrate. And the management has to prepare also for succession.
So all of that is the same reason that the full industry is in the concentration mode, need to have some permanent capital to seed your new initiative, prepare for succession, being larger. This is the three drivers of the consolidation that is ongoing. By the way, I think we've been very clear in the fact that we were thinking that this industry, for those three reasons, will concentrate. That was back in March 2023. And since then, you've seen that this trend has all the time accelerated. And that makes a lot of sense, I think, because of those three drivers. Now, does the team intend to stay committed to the firm? Yes. And that's how we structured the transaction so that they are committed for the next seven years to the firm.
That leaves us plenty of time, and they have plenty of talent to prepare for the next generation, and that's what we are going to work on with them. The second part of the question was about opportunity to disintermediate banks. Well, yes. Yes and yes, and this is a former banker that tells you that. Obviously, in the U.S., there has been significant disintermediation, but it will increase in Europe because the level of regulatory pressure, because the level of cost, because of many things make that banks, private credit will continue developing itself in Europe. And this is a trend that is not ready to stop. It will increase. It has already been very strong in the U.S. It will increase fast in Europe.
Thank you. I have now four questions from Benjamin Billiard. Would you expect Monroe to develop internationally organically or through M&A?
This is something we will assess. But I think that we have all means to develop organically. Whether acquisition can make sense, we'll study. But I think they have all means to develop organically internationally, specifically in Europe again.
Thank you. You mentioned about the 26% CAGR condition for the earnout. Can you say the starting and ending point for the calculation of that CAGR?
The starting point is the FRE 2024, and the ending point is the FRE 2027. Thank you. Maybe you could help us to distinguish between GP commitment and the EUR 800 million sponsoring program and the maximum ceiling commitment you would make into any new fund.
No, so as Laurent said, so the GP commitment, it's a percentage of the fund raise, below 1%, on average, 0.7%. It's really to align the interests of the management, the GP, with the LPs.
The sponsor money, the objective is totally different. It's to be in a position to launch a product and to give this product the critical size very quickly in order to accelerate the fundraising. So for the first bucket, the €200, it's based on the AUM raise, so let's say 1%. For the other fund, it could be higher for sure. We look at it product by product, but it will remain a relatively minority position in the fund for sure. And we have very strict criteria to assess the global value creation of the product. The ticket, on average, it would be between 50 and it could be 200 for very specific situations. Thank you. Last question from Benjamin Billiard. Is it conceivable to develop one of the asset management verticals, i.e., infrastructure, equity, or secondaries, organically?
Yes. I don't think it is easy today.
And I don't think that if you go with a first-time team, first-time fund, you can raise a significant amount of money. But the world can change. And it could also be the case in other types of businesses. As I say, for example, private credit, I think through the basis of Monroe, we probably can start a business in Europe from organic growth. So I've said that we will create the platform by a mixture of external and internal growth. We couldn't create by internal growth with no starting point in the current market environment. Probably 10 years ago, we could. But this environment, you couldn't. That's why we started by the external growth. Now we've had the basis. Yes, external growth is a true lever to grow our business. And we have discussions with IK, we've discussed with Monroe.
We can have a discussion with some of our teams in order to create new initiatives to create new products. And we will constantly work on having new products. We will then help them, seed them at the beginning, and then grow. Today, if you want to start an infra business from scratch, probably it's not easy. But that's the way the market is today.
Thank you. Question from Benjamin Isler. Are there any new credit strategies developed by Monroe Capital that could be disclosed where Wendel sponsor money will be allocated to? Not yet. Not yet. But this is not yet. Thank you. What are the current asset under management of AXA IM within Monroe Capital's managed fund? What is the share of AXA IM?
I cannot speak for AXA on that, but they are an important and historical LP to Monroe since years.
And the feedback from the discussion we had, they highly regard the team. They are very happy about the performance. And I think the reason they're doing this transaction with us is because they do believe that they want to be further with this team on the long term.
Thank you. Question from David Cerdan. Good morning. With a NAV ratio close to 20%, does it mean that you have achieved your plan to develop asset management activities or in other words? Do you need to sell assets to pursue, to invest in new assets?
I think I did answer this question already, but I can phrase it another way. You're never done when you create a platform of asset management. There's always growth initiatives. There's always new opportunities. What I'm saying is that we've done the most important part. We've created a platform.
We've got two great assets in two different verticals with a presence in Europe, a presence in the U.S. We've got a great starting base in order to continue growing this thing. That's our priority. Now, our LTV will manage our LTV, as I say, through asset rotation in the future. And then that will give us ample room to either find new great principal investment opportunities or to continue to grow our platform. We have ample room to do so in the future years. Thank you. That was the last question on the web. I think we still have a question on the phone by Alexandre Gérard. So if we can come back to the phone questions.
Thank you. Alexandre Gérard from CIC Market Solutions. Your line is open.
Yep. That's me again. Sorry for one last question.
I was just surprised by the fact that their AUMs at Monroe are spread over more than 40 different products. And this was not the case at IK Partners. So can you elaborate a bit on that fragmentation? And don't they have any flagship funds? And in terms of strategy, product-wise going forward, do they intend to address one segment of the market more than one of the other?
No, no. Sure. It's a great question because, in fact, they have one, but Cyril will answer to you on that. But they have basically one driver of performance, which is private credit to lower mid-market. But then it's expressed into different vehicles to cope with the different client base. It's more the client base than it's not like they are in many different strategies. It's more the type of vehicle for the clients. You can elaborate on that.
No, it's what you have on page five when I mentioned diversification. So they have, as Laurent said, one expertise, but the way they deliver this expertise to each client is different because each client requires specific vehicles, and then you multiply this by the vintages, and it leads to a relatively large number of vehicles. But the reality is that they have one expertise, and then they have a relatively broad set of clients, as you can see. And I will give you an example. Insurance, they invest in one vintage, in the second vintage, and then they want an SMA to customize. If you want to have this type of long-term partnership with big insurers, you need to be in a position, for example, to develop SMAs. CLO, it's a totally different dynamic, so it's why you have all those vehicles.
But behind this, it's mainly a private credit business focused on mid-market.
But the CLO are still based on the private credit market. So they're making a CLO every six months, two CLO per year. Same for BDCs, which is based on the middle market loans but are specific vehicles dedicated to retail clients. And then you've got some flagship open-end fund, which is the classical of what a private equity fund will do. But those ones are smaller in terms of size because the same as, by the way, they've put for the same loan, they put it in the different vehicles in order to fuel the same. So it's the same driver of performance. And then it's expressed into different vehicles to satisfy the client base.
Thank you. And there were no further questions.
I will now hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you very much for being with us this morning. As I say, I think it's a very important step toward the transformation of Wendel, well on the way, premium assets, and a clear view of where we want to go. Thank you again. I think there's a call on Friday for our third-quarter earnings, and then we have an Investor Day on December 6th where we'll go through more detail about our strategy going forward. Thank you very much, all of you, and have a great day.