World View

UK - Colonial says talks concerning the sale of its UK life assets are continu-ing, but declined to comment on parties to the discussions.

UK - Colonial says talks concerning the sale of its UK life assets are continu-ing, but declined to comment on parties to the discussions.

London's <I>Sunday Telegraph<I> newspaper reported that Winterthur Life, owned by Credit Suisse, has offered about A$785 million for Colonial's British life insurance operations. Winterthur is thought to have been granted exclusive nego-tiating rights last month.

Talk of a possible sale of Colonial's UK assets follows news that the acquisi-tion of UK fund manager, Stewart Ivory, looks set to be cleared following unani-mous acceptance by the Edinburgh-based group's shareholders. Colonial announced it had acquired 89.6 per cent of the UK company in February.

Assuming all payments are made, Colonial has put the value of the purchase at A$183.2 million.

A Colonial spokesperson says the deal will have no bearing on the imminent merger of Colonial with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

The combined operation of Colonial First State and Ivory in the UK would manage more than A$23.7 billion and would operate as Colonial Stewart Ivory Invest-ments. The deal would increase Colonial's funds under management worldwide to about $95 billion.

According to Colonial First State, a combined business of that kind will have the investment management strength, product range, infrastructure and critical mass to significantly expand in the UK and provide a platform for future expan-sion into Europe.

Stewart Ivory managing director John Thompson will become chief executive of the combined entity and Colonial First State investments chief investment officer Mark Burgess will retain that role in the new structure.

Switzerland flag - While Australia's technology funds market is booming, fund managers around the world continue to jump on the technology bandwagon in an ef-fort to capitalise on the rapid growth of the sector. A recent addition to the technology fund fold is Credit Suisse Asset Management, which is set to launch four mutual funds in Europe. Other European tech funds include Martin Currie In-vestment Management, Edinburgh Fund Managers, Newton Fund Managers and Royal Sun Alliance Insurance Group CSAM, which expects its funds to raise at least $500 million this year. According to the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment funds, UK investors had US$3.8 billion in tech stock funds at the end of Janu-ary, a five-fold increase from the 12 months before.

UK flag - Deutsche Asset Management is to take over management of Prudential's UK balanced fund business, which has about £12 billion under management. Pruden-tial will now focus on retail and pooled pension business, following its £1.9 billion acquisition last year of niche fund manager, M&G. Up to 50 wholesale clients will be affected, and not all are likely to move their mandate to Deut-sche, which is involved in the merger deal between Deutsche Bank, its parent, and Dresdner Bank. Clients have been served notice, and have about three months to accept the deal or to find an alternative fund manager.

Macedonia flag - QBE Insurance has acquired a major stake in Macedonia's largest insurer, ADOR Makedonija, acquiring a 60 per cent interest for around A$23 mil-lion. Established in 1945, ADOR Makedonija is licensed for both life and non-life insurance. It dominates the market with a 94 per cent market share. Annual premium income consisting mainly of non-life premiums, is more than $140 mil-lion, according to QBE. A QBE spokesperson says the acquisition complements the company's plans for expansion in Central and Eastern Europe. The acquisition will provide QBE with further scale and diversity to the already existing opera-tions in Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Ukraine.

US flag - US-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance has purchased UK's fifth largest pension fund manager, Gartmore, for £1.03 billion after a fierce bidding war ramped the sale price up from £550 million.

The deal, signed after CGU and ABN Amro dropped out of the running, values Gart-more at 1.9 per cent of assets under management. It creates one of the world's top 30 financial houses, with funds under management of more than US$200 billion and leaves Schroders as the UK's last remaining "big five" pension fund manager. The price is twice as much as analysts thought Gartmore was worth when it was put up for sale by National Westminster Bank last year.

According to company sources, Nationwide unexpectedly clinched the deal by agreeing to make no changes to Gartmore's management team and its operations.