Guggenheim Loan Drops Amid Scrutiny, but Walter-Owned Insurers Only Account for Approx. 1.1% of AUM; Sports Assets Likely Key to Any TWG Cash Raise

TWG Global, which was launched by Walter in 2024 as a holding company for his diversified investments, said on Aug. 26 that “it is important to set the record straight” after “multipronged attacks against TWG have been advanced by unnamed sources with self-serving interests that have been reported in the media” over the past several weeks.

The firm stated that “while the investigations originated with a whistleblower concern, TWG and Guggenheim have demonstrated there was no wrongdoing,” adding that “Guggenheim’s auditor has also issued unqualified audit opinions, including with respect to the revenue at issue for both 2024 and 2025.”

Guggenheim Overview: Sammons Likely Largest Client; Modest Direct Exposure to TWG Insurers

Guggenheim Partners is a diversified financial services firm, founded in 1999 as a partnership between Mark Walter’s Liberty Hampshire Co. and Peter Lawson-Johnston, a scion of the Guggenheim family. Today, Guggenheim operates in three key segments: (1) Guggenheim Investments, an asset manager, (2) Guggenheim Securities, a broker/dealer and advisory firm, and (3) a wealth management and investment consulting business. The organizational chart below, reconstructed based on forms ADV filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (see example) and FINRA BrokerCheck reports (see example), shows the location of various registered operating entities within the Guggenheim structure.
 

GIH Borrower LLC, the borrower under Guggenheim’s $1.175 billion term loan, appears to be an intermediate holding company for Guggenheim Investments only. Guggenheim Securities and the wealth management / investment consulting business appear to sit outside of this credit group.

Guggenheim Investments is a private reporter (our PCA clients with access to the data room can request a separate report from our colleagues HERE); however, because it is a holding company for a number SEC-registered investment advisors, it is required to publicly disclose certain information about its ownership, its assets under management, or AUM, and certain managed funds.

We summarize Guggenheim’s regulatory AUM by entity below, including two entities that sit outside of the GIH Borrower credit group. Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, or GPIM, appears to be the primary operating entity, accounting for $240 billion of the total regulatory AUM. Readers should note that the SEC’s definition of regulatory AUM includes leverage and may be different from fee-paying AUM.
 

As shown above, the aggregate reported regulatory AUM of $273 billion is higher than the $252 billion figure disclosed by Guggenheim on its own website. Although some of the difference is due to timing, we believe a more likely explanation for the meaningful difference is that certain funds may be included in multiple entities. For example, the prospectus for one of Guggenheim’s closed-end funds lists Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors as the advisor and GPIM as the sub-advisor. The two entities maintain separate registrations with the SEC and disclose their assets separately. Our analysis of the AUM and related person data disclosed for 73 private funds managed by GPIM, which collectively hold $9 billion of regulatory AUM, shows that approximately 51% of their AUM comes from related entities.

The SEC also requires investment advisors to disclose AUM by client type. As shown below, insurance clients dominate Guggenheim’s AUM, accounting for $135 billion, or nearly half of the total. Investment companies (mutual funds, closed-end funds and other registered entities) account for a further $90.6 billion.
 

According to news reports, Guggenheim managed approximately $93 billion for life insurers Midland and North American, which are affiliated with Guggenheim minority owner Sammons. This would account for approximately 69% of Guggenheim’s overall insurance regulatory AUM, or 34% of its total AUM. On the basis of those reports, the share of Sammons-owned insurers’ assets managed by Guggenheim has declined to 73% from 87% in the third quarter of 2024. On the basis of the insurers’ regulatory disclosures, this implies that the Sammons AUM at Guggenheim stood at approximately $109 billion as of Sept. 30, 2024.

EquiTrust, a former life insurance affiliate of Guggenheim recently purchased by Amistad Group, appears to account for at least $3.8 billion of Guggenheim’s AUM based on statutory disclosures.

We note that the two Walter-controlled insurers that are at the center of the current controversy appear to account for a modest portion of Guggenheim’s AUM. Delaware Life disclosed that GPIM managed approximately $2.5 billion for it as of June 30, while the amount managed by Guggenheim for Clear Spring Life was just $369 million.
 

Although we would not endeavor to assign a valuation to Guggenheim without analyzing the company’s actual financials, we believe considering a sample of publicly traded asset managers relative to their AUM may be helpful. The five companies listed below trade at an adjusted enterprise value (net of corporate corporate debt/cash, balance sheet investments and noncontrolling interest) of between 0.54% and 1.26% of their listed AUM.

We would note in particular the publicly listed partnership units of AllianceBernstein, which trade at an implied EV/AUM multiple of 1.12%. AllianceBernstein is majority owned by Equitable Holdings, a life insurer, which accounts for approximately 17% of AllianceBernstein’s AUM. Applying these multiples to Guggenheim’s self-disclosed AUM of $251.9 billion yields an illustrative enterprise value of $1.3 billion to $3.2 billion.
 

Guggenheim Capital is predominantly owned by its employees, along with Walter, who has a “substantial economic interest” through his TWG Global holding company, with a stake of less than 25% held by Sammons Enterprises Inc.

TWG said in its Aug. 26 press release that, “as it relates to Guggenheim, while the investigations originated with a whistleblower concern, TWG and Guggenheim have demonstrated there was no wrongdoing,” adding, “Guggenheim’s auditor has also issued unqualified audit opinions, including with respect to the revenue at issue for both 2024 and 2025.”

DLIC, CSLAC Aim to Complete Remediation by Year-End After $21B in Assets Reclassified as Affiliated Investments

Delaware Life Insurance Co., or DLIC, and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co., or CSLAC, are owned by TWG Global through Group 1001. In February, DLIC and CSLAC received grand jury subpoenas in connection with an investigation being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and noted that the SEC is conducting a parallel investigation.

DLIC indicated that the investigation is “focused on whether certain private credit investments introduced to DLIC and CSLAC by an affiliate should have been treated as affiliated or related-party transactions.” After an internal investigation, in late June, the insurers disclosed that they had restated financial statements as of Dec. 31 that reclassified a “material portion” of private credit investments as affiliated or related-party assets.

DLIC reclassified at least $16 billion of assets as affiliated in its statutory statement, while CSLAC reclassified at least $4.3 billion, bringing the total amount reclassified between both insurers to over $20 billion. This caused DLIC’s affiliated assets as a percentage of its general account invested assets to 42% as of Dec. 31, up from less than 3% prior to the reclassification. For Clear Spring, the equivalent ratio increased to 48% from less than 5% as of Dec. 31.
 

Rating agencies S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings and AM Best all kept DLIC’s credit rating at A- but revised the outlook to negative because of internal control considerations and execution risk associated with DLIC’s remediation plan, which the company is planning to complete prior to filing its statutory financial statement for the year ended Dec. 31.

As part of remediation efforts, DLIC announced on Aug. 17 that it entered into an agreement with TWG Global LLC to exchange up to $6.5 billion of DLIC’s affiliated investments for an equivalent amount of non-affiliated investments. DLIC indicated that this agreement, if approved by regulators, would reduce its affiliated assets as a percentage of its general account invested assets to 26% as of June 30 “assuming the full $6.5 billion is exchanged and depending upon how DLIC holds certain exchanged assets.”

DLIC also announced a capital maintenance agreement in which TWG has committed to contribute capital to DLIC if its risk-based capital, or RBC, ratio falls below 350% at the end of the year or any year for the “duration of the affiliated investment reduction effort.” According to S&P, DLIC’s RBC ratio was at 430% as of Dec. 31, 2025.

TWG Global said in its Aug. 26 press release regarding Group 1001, “At its core this is a regulatory matter with a straightforward plan that has been submitted to its regulator to promptly eliminate all of the affiliate exposure at the Group 1001 insurance companies.”

TWG noted that “affiliated transactions are common across the insurance industry and suggestions that TWG is ‘looting’ insurers is defamatory and false.”

Mark Walter’s Sports Assets Appear Easiest to Monetize but Are Not for Sale at ‘Fire Sale’ Prices

Against this backdrop, it was reported on Aug. 12 that Walter is selling his majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation, which TWG Global said was “hardly a fire sale,” given that he acquired his majority stake at a $10 billion valuation last year. We estimate that the sale, which is subject to NBA approval at a meeting in mid-September, would provide Walter with more than $8 billion in pre-tax proceeds based on his estimated ownership stake of roughly 70%.

In addition to his Lakers stake, which we believe represents his largest individual personal asset, Walter’s business empire includes but is not limited to:
 

• Life insurers including DLIC and CSLAC;
   
• A “substantial economic interest” in Guggenheim Capital;
   
• A 5% stake, as of last April, in Mubadala Capital, the alternative asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Co.;
   
• Sports assets including ownership stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chelsea FC, Cadillac Formula 1 team, Professional Women’s Hockey League and the Los Angeles Sparks;
   
• Public investments, including a roughly 4% stake in Carvana;
   
• Numerous private investments including stakes in AI and energy-related startups; and
   
• An AI joint venture with Palantir and xAI.
   

This simplified organizational chart was prepared by Octus solely for illustrative purposes and is meant to reflect assets under the ownership of TWG Global, rather than a legal entity breakdown.
 

It is unclear to us whether Walter’s ownership stake in sports teams including the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chelsea FC are included within the TWG Global LLC umbrella, and as a result, we have prepared illustrative organizational charts for these teams below.
 

We view Walter’s Dodgers stake, which we estimate to be 27%, as being his second-largest personal asset (behind his Lakers stake). Sportico recently valued the Dodgers at $9 billion, including its real estate and related businesses, well above the $2 billion acquisition price in 2012.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, the Dodgers had roughly $1.5 billion in debt at American Media Productions LLC, which operates its regional sports network, that was held by insurers with ties to Guggenheim and/or the Dodgers ownership group, as summarized below:
 

News reports last week suggested Walter might consider selling his estimated 13% stake in Chelsea FC, which is held through SME FC Holdings, an entity not explicitly disclosed within TWG Global’s structure, according to DLIC filings. Chelsea’s valuation may range from $4 billion to $5 billion per Sportico and Forbes.

However, Chelsea has nearly $2 billion of debt comprising over $800 million of debt on a holdco PIK loan provided by Ares in 2023 and over $1 billion outstanding on a RCF at an intermediate holdco as of June 30, 2025, the date of the last publicly disclosed financial statements.

TWG Global stated in its Aug. 26 press release that while TWG, Walter and his partners “continuously get interest from prospective buyers and co-investors in their sports assets,” they are “not looking to sell [their] sports assets at fire sale prices to raise capital for its insurance options.” The company said that the Dodgers are “not being sold and no sale process has been initiated,” and that “it is not considering exiting its stake in the Cadillac Formula 1 team or any other part of TWG Motorsports.”

We analyze the hypothetical value of certain of Walter’s key assets below solely for illustrative purposes. Notably, in many cases with his sports assets, Walter is the controlling owner regardless of his economic ownership stake.
 

The above table’s illustrative figures reflect pretax value and exclude key assets including TWG’s stake in Guggenheim Capital and its estimated 5% stake in Mubadala Capital after it committed $2.5 billion in capital through a reciprocal “investment alliance” announced in April 2025 under which Mubadala Capital anchored and led a $10 billion syndicated investment as part of TWG’s $15 billion equity raise.

Security Prices for Select Affected Cos. Have Recovered After Initial Jolt Last Week

Sammons Financial Group, which operates insurers Midland National and North American, saw its 5.95% unsecured bonds drop about 5% last week on elevated volume in conjunction with Guggenheim’s term loan drop and following a Hunterbrook Media report detailing ties between Sammons and Guggenheim.

Sammons Enterprises Inc., the parent of Sammons Financial Group, has a “non-controlling, minority interest” in Guggenheim Capital, which we estimate to be less than 25%, although that amount may be declining as Sammons said it has been divesting its interest over the past few years. According to Bloomberg, Sammons’ subsidiary Sammons Financial Group held a call earlier this week in which it discussed its relationship with Guggenheim.

Security Benefit Life Insurance Co., a former Guggenheim affiliate spun off as part of Eldridge Industries in 2015 and run by former president of Guggenheim, Todd Boehly, has seen its 5.9% unsecured bonds due 2028 and its Series B preferred stock drop by several points over the past two weeks. This decline comes not only amid greater regulatory and media scrutiny on insurers but also on the heels of the recently announced change to National Association of Insurance Commissioners’, or NAIC’s, treatment of so-called collateral loans in calculating risk-based capital ratios. Security Benefit is reportedly the single largest user of collateral loans industrywide. Boehly indicated on Aug. 26 that he plans to slash the firm’s pile of collateral loans amid heightened scrutiny on life insurers, according to Bloomberg.

As of March 30, Mark Walter held roughly 30 million (post stock split) Class B common shares in Carvana through an indirect subsidiary of TWG Global called CVAN Holdings LLC. If fully converted, these shares would represent 4% of Class A common shares, or over $2 billion of value based on Carvana’s current share price of about $75, according to Yahoo Finance.

However, these shares may not be able to be easily sold since CVAN Holdings has pledged all of its Class B common shares to secure its obligations under one or more prepaid variable forward sale contracts and certain margin loans with an unaffiliated third party believed to be Citi. Although Carvana’s share price initially dropped 14% at the beginning of last week, it has since recovered on this development.

In February, Mubadala Capital announced an agreement to acquire Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings for $2.43 per share in an all-cash transaction, implying an enterprise value of $6 billion. The deal includes $3.3 billion in committed equity financing, of which up to $1.1 billion is slated to be funded by TWG Global.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter, subject to regulatory approval, with an outside deadline of Nov. 9, 2026, or Feb. 9, 2027 (if extended) for consummation. After an initial slight widening of some bonds and a small stock price drop early last week, Clear Channel’s security prices have mostly recovered, likely implying a strong probability of the deal closing on schedule.

In November 2025, Aquarian Holdings announced an agreement to acquire Brighthouse Financial for $70 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $4.1 billion. Aquarian is a “diversified global holding company with a strategic portfolio of insurance and asset management solutions” that has faced greater scrutiny in recent weeks as its founder and managing partner is a former Guggenheim executive.

While Aquarian’s 7.875% unsecured notes have dropped several points over the last two weeks, Brighthouse Financial’s stock is down 9% as of Aug. 27, 23% below the deal price, after Delaware’s insurance regulator said it has retained outside experts with “specialized knowledge relevant to the transaction” as part of its review of the deal.

Certain security price movements for select companies and situations that may be directly or indirectly affected by the ongoing Mark Walter investigation are summarized in the chart below: