Investor who started a firm with only $250 to get $7 billion richer after slicing off a stake to sell to private equity

Private equity firm Advent International and a unit of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are paying at least $2.5 billion and potentially as much as $3 billion for a stake that values the entire business at $12.75 billion, according to a statement Monday. 

Fisher, 73, is founder and owner of Fisher Investments, which oversees $275 billion for more than 150,000 clients, primarily private investors in the US. The sale will catapult Fisher back onto the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people, with a net worth of about $12.2 billion after it closes. Fisher was last on the list in 2022 when the threshold for entering the ranking was lower. 

“This transaction is aimed dually at estate tax and planning purposes while assuring that FI will maintain its traditional culture, growth evolution and devotion to exceptional client service,” Fisher said in the statement. “FI has been my life.”

Fisher will retain majority beneficial ownership and more than 70% of the voting shares following the sale, which is expected to be completed this year. 

His current net worth of $5.2 billion is tied to a valuation of Fisher Investments that’s based on the average price-to-assets under management ratio of three publicly traded peers.

Among the investors in Advent vehicles are Mousse Partners, the family office of brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, who own luxury brand Chanel.

A native of San Francisco, Fisher was trained in the markets and investing by his father, Philip, a well-known money manager and author and proponent of growth investing. Ken started his namesake advisory in 1979. He published his first book, Super Stocks and began writing a column for Forbes five years later.

Fisher, who relocated his firm from California to Washington state in the mid 2010s seeking a friendlier business climate, moved headquarters again last year, this time to a suburb of Dallas. The move was prompted by a Washington Supreme Court ruling that the state’s plan to implement a 7% capital gains tax on its wealthiest citizens was constitutional. 

Fisher announced the move with a sarcastic statement blaming the court’s “wisdom and knowledge of the law” for the company’s decision.