On January 19, 2023, Variant Investments, LLC (Variant), an SEC-registered alternative credit specialist and interval fund manager, and Kudu Investment Management, LLC (Kudu), a provider of permanent capital solutions to independent asset and wealth managers worldwide, announced that Kudu has made a minority investment in Variant. Seward & Kissel was pleased to represent Kudu in connection with this investment management industry transaction.

New York-based Kudu provides long-term capital solutions—including generational ownership transfers, management buyouts, acquisition and growth finance, as well as liquidity for legacy partners—to asset and wealth managers globally. Variant is a Portland, Oregon-based employee-controlled SEC-registered alternative credit manager. Variant’s strategies are focused on uncorrelated income-generating private investments in niche markets and offered to investors through institutional closed-end interval funds.

Seward & Kissel LLP (www.sewkis.com) is a leading New York law firm, originally established in 1890, offering legal advice emphasizing business, financial and commercial law and related litigation. The firm’s Business Transactions Group handles middle-market M&A, private equity, venture capital and joint venture transactions involving a wide variety of industries. The firm is ranked as Highly Regarded for Corporate/M&A by Chambers USA and is recommended by The Legal 500 in the middle-market M&A category, stating that Seward & Kissel “advises on market-leading transactions within the industries where the firm has an international reputation, namely investment management and shipping.”

The company’s press release describing this transaction is available here.