Liontrust to buy UK’s Majedie Asset Management for up to $160 million

By Emma-Victoria Farr

LONDON (Reuters) -Liontrust Asset Management is to buy British fund manager Majedie Asset Management for up to 120 million pounds ($159.31 million), the company said on Tuesday.

Liontrust will pay an initial 80 million pounds for the firm, plus a deferred payment of up to 40 million pounds.

The deal is part of Liontrust’s strategy to diversify its product range and gain scale. Active asset managers globally are trying to bulk up as they face pressure on fees as investors turn to passive funds.

Majedie was founded in 2002 and is an equities boutique that has assets under management and advice of 5.8 billion pounds across a range of UK and international equity strategies.

“Given the growing demand from institutional investors for global equity managers, we believe we can expand this client base further for the Majedie investment team, as well as take advantage of Majedie’s institutional expertise,” John Ions, Liontrust Chief Executive said in a statement.

Liontrust’s pro forma assets under management and advice will increase by 5.8 billion pounds to over 42.3 billion pounds.

Majedie’s fund management team will remain unchanged under James de Uphaugh and chief executive Rob Harris will join Liontrust as Head of Global Institutional Business.

The deal will see Liontrust issue up to 97.0 million pounds in new ordinary shares of 1 pence each and up to 23.0 million pounds in cash to the shareholders of Majedie.

($1 = 0.7534 pounds)

(Reporting by Emma-Victoria FarrEditing by Rachel Armstrong)