Envestnet, which lost its cofounder and CEO in 2019, is once again up for sale—but questions remain about whether finding a buyer this time around will be any different.
The publicly traded fintech is currently considering two options: Finding a buyer for its data aggregator Yodlee, which collects consumer financial information from various accounts, or entertaining bids for the whole company, four banking sources told Coins2Day. Envestnet has hired different investment banks to advise on each transaction. (This week was the deadline for Yodlee bids, one banker said.)
Private equity firms, including Bain Capital, are said to be kicking the tires. Bain declined to comment for this story, and an Envestnet spokeswoman told Coins2Day: Envestnet “doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation in the market.”
Launched in 1999, Envestnet provides technology and automation software to more than 108,000 advisors and 16 of the 20 largest U.S. Banks, according to the firm’s website. The Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based company, which has $5.8 trillion in platform assets, went public in 2010 at $9 a share. Since the IPO, Envestnet has made 25 acquisitions, including seven larger deals and the remainder tuck-ins, Peter Heckmann, a senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson, wrote in an April 1 note.
Envestnet has been up for sale since Jud Bergman, the company’s cofounder and CEO, died in a car crash in October 2019. Envestnet then promoted Bill Crager, cofounder and president, to CEO. Crager stepped down as of March 30—remaining on as a senior advisor—with James L. Fox becoming interim CEO.
Possible sales of Envestnet have been widely reported. Several months after Bergman’s death, Envestnet hired Goldman Sachs to sell Yodlee, Barron’s reported in February 2020. Two years later, in February 2022, Envestnet went up for sale. This attempt came close to finding a buyer—Advent Investment and Warburg Pincus were the final bidders but walked away from the deal, Barron’s reported. Last week, Reuters said Envestnet was exploring options that could include a potential sale after receiving takeover interest.
Envestnet tried again to offload Yodlee in December, Bloomberg reported. The data aggregation provider, acquired in 2015 for about $660 million, competes against Plaid, which bought Quovo in 2019 in the open banking space. Of the two, Plaid’s technology is preferred among most bankers, several told Coins2Day.
That’s also meant Yodlee has been a drag on the overall business, the bankers added. In February, Envestnet took a $191.8 million fourth-quarter, non-cash impairment charge tied to its unit that houses Yodlee, CFO Josh Warren said on a Feb. 22 earnings call, adding: “While performance was less than Envestnet had anticipated, there are a variety of strategic and operational initiatives in process that we believe will position the business well going forward.”
Envestnet may have to be a bit more flexible in finding a buyer. AssetMark Financial, a competitor to Envestnet that’s majority owned by Huatai Securities, was on the block earlier this year and seeking $40 a share. Some potential buyers said this was too high. GTCR, a Chicago buyout shop, agreed Thursday to acquire AssetMark for $2.7 billion, or $35.25 a share. The deal works out to about nine to 10 times AssetMark’s consensus 2024 adjusted EBITDA forecast of $278 million, a multiple among the lower end of those recently seen in the fintech space, D.A. Davidson’s Heckmann said in an April 25 note.
After sinking to a 52-week low of $33.12 in November, Envestnet’s shares have nearly doubled since then, mainly due to the sales rumors, and were trading near $63 as of midday Friday. Heckmann thinks Envestnet could sell for $81 to $86 a share, or $4.4 billion to $4.7 billion, according to his April 25 note. The right buyer could pay even more, he added: “We believe Envestnet is well positioned to generate attractive growth in revenue and earnings in the intermediate term.”
Another banker who spoke with Coins2Day thinks Envestnet should be more realistic. “At some point,” the second banker said, “Envestnet has to cash out. Just stoop low and get a low bid.”