Henderson Global Investors has started to negotiate with embattled UK investment house Gartmore about making a £344 million (around $534 million) bid for the firm, the Financial Times reported.

The UK-listed business, which bought London-listed New Star Asset Management in January 2009 after that firm had suffered a collapse in its share price, may make a similar move with Gartmore, the report said. Henderson has made a 95p per share conditional offer, a discount to Gartmore’s current share price of 104.8p, which would be paid in a mix of cash and Henderson shares, the report said, citing unnamed sources.

The terms of the deal, which Jeffrey Meyer, Gartmore chief executive, wants to complete by the end of the year, have not been finalised and there is no certainty of its success, the report said.

Gartmore has put itself up for sale after the loss of its key fund manager, Roger Guy.

The firm has received two other indicative offers – one from GAM, the Switzerland-based fund manager, and the other from the Japanese financial conglomerate Sumitomo – but is now in exclusive talks with Henderson. Gartmore and Henderson both confirmed that they were in discussions, the report said.

WealthBriefing could not reach the firms for comment at the time of going to press.

Gartmore has been an independent firm since it was listed less than a year on the London Stock Exchange. It is 20 per cent owned by the private equity group Hellman Friedman.