Historic Scottish investment house Martin Currie has been bought by major American equity specialist Legg Mason for an undisclosed sum.
Under the terms of the deal the Edinburgh-based asset manager which has been operating independently since 1881 and which has been led by chief executive Willie Watt since 2001 will become a core investment affiliate of its new owner alongside such names as ClearBridge Investments, the Permal Group, Royce & Associates and Western Asset Management.
The Maryland-based asset manager said that as part of the transaction, Legg Mason Australian Equities (LMAE) would become part of the Martin Currie operation.
The Scottish business currently has almost £10 billion of assets under management (AUM), while the LMAE operation has a further $2.5bn of AUM.
Legg Mason said the acquisition of Martin Currie extended its capabilities in global equities, emerging markets and in Europe and Asia particularly Japan and China.
The firm said it expected the deal for Martin Currie to complete in the fourth quarter of this year and the move to be “slightly accretive” to group earnings in the first year post-close.
Joe Sullivan, president and CEO of Legg Mason, said the businesses had major synergies. “Martin Currie’s active international equity capabilities fill our largest product gap and are a perfect complement to our existing investment capabilities,” he said.
“Martin Currie is a perfect strategic fit for our growing equity business in Australia, where we see meaningful opportunity.
“We believe that, over time, our global retail distribution platform will be able to meaningfully leverage Martin Currie’s broad-based investment capabilities.”
Willie Watt, chief executive of Martin Currie, said it was a milestone moment for the business.
“We believe Legg Mason is the ideal strategic partner to grow our business further and will position us as the strategic international equities specialist in one of the most powerful independent investment management companies globally,” Mr Watt said.
“Most importantly for our clients, the partnership gives us investment and operational autonomy, and this means our client proposition remains unchanged,” he added.
Legg Mason added that the senior management team at Martin Currie had signed new long-term contracts to ensure “strength and stability” at the asset manager as the deal moved to completion.