Oppenheimer is best-known for its large stock funds that invest globally and in the emerging markets. Its biggest fund is the $36 billion Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund that buys emerging market equities. International funds typically charge higher fees than their domestic counterparts. They have also proven more resistant to the lure of passive investing.
Recent efforts by asset managers to grow through mergers haven’t immediately borne fruit. Investors in Janus Henderson Group Plc lost about 17 percent through Wednesday since the May 2017 merger of Janus Capital Group Inc. and Henderson Group Plc. Standard Life Aberdeen Plc fell more than 31 percent since Standard Life Plc acquired Aberdeen Asset Management Plc in August 2017.
Cost Savings
Invesco has also been active in growing through acquisitions before Thursday’s announcement. In April, it closed a $1.2 billion acquisition of ETFs from Guggenheim Partners. Flanagan said his track record of buying and integrating other asset managers will help the company succeed.
“Writing the check is not enough,” he said. “What is really important is to execute a combination.”
Flanagan said he expected the combination to yield about $475 million in cost-savings over two years.
MassMutual’s Crandall has been reshaping the company’s asset-management operations. In 2016, he combined some units under the Barings brand led by Tom Finke. Barings, which oversaw more than $306 billion as of June 30, has strategies in sectors including private credit, fixed income, equities and real estate.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.