Victory Capital, the Texas-based investment house that lost out in the race to buy Janus Henderson earlier this year, is set to acquire credit manager First Eagle for $7bn. The group said on Wednesday that its acquisition of New York-based First Eagle — with $222bn of assets under management — would create a $571bn fund firm, “positioning Victory Capital as one of the largest publicly traded traditional asset managers in the US”.

Victory’s purchase of First Eagle, a specialist in collateralised loan obligations, comes as a wave of consolidation ripples across the global asset management industry, with fund firms seeking scale and breadth across geographies and asset classes. Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, together with investors led by venture firm General Catalyst, ultimately won the bidding war for Janus Henderson, with an $8bn all-cash offer, after Victory unexpectedly swooped in earlier this year with a rival proposal. The latest deal will comprise $4.4bn in cash and $2bn in newly issued shares, with Victory also taking on $575mn of First Eagle bonds expiring in 2032.

Private equity firm Genstar Capital had only officially closed its majority investment in First Eagle roughly a year ago, following an announcement in March — marking the exit of previous main owners Blackstone and Corsair. Victory’s chair and chief executive David Brown described the First Eagle deal on Wednesday as “transformational” and said it “represents the next chapter in the evolution of our business”. He added that the deal “enriches [Victory’s] talent pool, gives us additional scale to invest even more in our overall platform, and amplifies our distribution depth and breadth in the US”.

First Eagle would keep its own brand and investment processes, Victory said, while operating on the parent group’s platform. When it dropped out of the bidding war for Janus in late March, Victory said its “acquisition strategy has not changed” and that it would “continue to pursue transactions that increase the competitiveness of the company through size, scale, product expansion and distribution access throughout the world”.