Framlington Group, a mainly retail-led fund management group with a growing private client business, has been bought by AXA Investment Manag...

Framlington Group, a mainly retail-led fund management group with a growing private client business, has been bought by AXA Investment Managers from HSBC and Comerica for £174 million ($305.2 million). Under the agreement, subject to the approval of the Financial Services Authority, AXA will buy 100 per cent of Framlington Group, which AXA said had £4.5 billion under management at the end of June. Framlington is an investment management boutique with an emphasis on specialist, high-performance and high-value-added equity investments, and has a major market position within the UK retail market segment, capturing 10.7 per cent of overall UK retail net sales during 2004. It also sells to UK high net worth individuals — a market it has been growing rapidly in recent years. The London-based firm’s fund range comprises 24 retail unit trusts, five investment trusts and four Luxembourg SICAVs (mutual funds), as well as institutional and private client products. Framlington’s fund range will be distributed across AXA’s European and Asian distribution platforms. The group will operate under the new brand name of AXA Framlington. AXA IM has appointed its global head of securities investment management, Robert Kyprianou, chief executive officer of the new entity. AXA Framlington will join the AXA IM multi-specialist model as an equity manager, with AXA Private Equity, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers, AXA Rosenberg and AXA Multimanager. AXA pointed out that Framlington will retain its investment process. The management firm has also envisaged recruitment of additional investment managers and the creation of new products.