Rockefeller Capital Gets $622M for Selling 21% Stake

Rockefeller Capital Management, the wealth and investment advisory firm that emerged from the Rockefellers’ family office, received backing from Canada’s Desmarais family that values the business at $3 billion.

The New-York based firm secured $622 million from IGM Financial Inc. in exchange for a 20.5% stake and two board seats, the firms said in a statement Monday.

The deal, which is the first outside investment in Rockefeller to be disclosed publicly, brings together two of North America’s influential financial families.

It “provides brand value, and shows potential elite advisers we’re looking to hire now that we’re attracting another great family,” Rockefeller Chief Executive Officer Greg Fleming said in an interview.

Andre Desmarais, deputy chairman of Power Corp. of Canada, and James O’Sullivan, president of IGM Financial, are joining Rockefeller’s board. Jeffrey Orr, CEO of Power Corp., will be a special adviser to the board, according to a company spokesperson.

IGM Financial, a subsidiary of Power Corp., is one of Canada’s largest diversified wealth and asset management companies. The deal makes the firm the second largest shareholder behind Andreas Halvorsen’s hedge fund, Viking Global Investors, which remains the majority investor.

Fleming, 60, who previously ran Merrill Lynch’s global investment bank and was president of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, formed Rockefeller as an expansion of the family office created by John D. Rockefeller in 1882.

Fleming acquired Rock & Co., the family’s investment firm, with backing from Viking.