Walter Scott sale will not affect Macquarie Professional Series

The Macquarie Financial Services Group has stipulated the proposed sale of Walter Scott & Partners to Mellon Financial Corporation in the US will have no effect on the operation of its Professional Series offering.

The Walter Scott Global Equity Fund is distributed to the Australian investment market via the Macquarie Professional Series group of funds.

While Macquarie was only informed of the potential sale this week the financial services group was at no point worried about the effect it would have on its relationship with Walter Scott.

“We’ve now had a good chance to speak with Alan McFarlane at Walter Scott and also meet with James Gruver [Mellon Global Investments Australia managing director] and we’re quite satisfied and confident that really it’s all systems go and no change,” Macquarie Professional Series head of distribution Peter Shepherd said.

“We’ve got an exclusive partnership for the Australian market place so there was never any question around that. We had absolute confidence in Walter Scott & Partners and the integrity around that partnership agreement we’ve got with them. So we never had a doubt about what may occur from our perspective,” he added.

Shepherd was also quick to point out the operation of the fund itself would not change under the new ownership structure.

“The investment process doesn’t change, the philosophy is unchanged, the people are unchanged, and the fund that we’ve established is part of that same business. So at the end of the day what’s happening is the shareholding of the business is changing but everything else is staying the same,” Shepherd said.

He said the rationale behind the sale was the increasing burden of the regulatory and reporting environments across the world.

“What Mellon brings to all that is a skill set around back office administration and assistance around all those regulatory issues which has got to be a good thing,” Shepherd said.

“What it does for Walter Scott & Partners is it allows them to focus on their investment capability which is what they’re all about,” he explained.