Evercore Partners to buy ISI Group

NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Boutique investment bank Evercore Partners Inc said on Sunday it plans to acquire the operating business of ISI International Strategy & Investment, an independent research-driven equity sales and agency trading firm.

Evercore will also acquire about 40 percent interest in its Institutional Equities business that it does not already own. The combined business will be known as Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Evercore said in a press release.

Evercore will issue up to about 8 million share equivalents in the two transactions - worth about $401 million as of Friday's close - with almost 70 percent of the share equivalent consideration dependent on the financial performance of the combined business over the five years following closing.

The transactions are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014, and are subject to required regulatory approvals.

Evercore shares closed down 8.1 percent at $50.13 on Friday.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Sandra Maler)