US-based Wachovia Corp’s asset management division Evergreen Investments has taken control of privately held European Credit Management, the...

US-based Wachovia Corp’s asset management division Evergreen Investments has taken control of privately held European Credit Management, the London-based investment firm with around $26 billion in assets under management. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it will create a combined organisation with over $280 billion under management serving more than 2,400 institutional clients and 3 million individual shareholders. ECM co-founder Stephen Rumsey - who started the firm in 1999 - will continue with Evergreen, and has been engaged to provide strategic insight as the firm expands its global business. “Our alliance with ECM represents a significant advancement of Evergreen’s global asset management distribution capabilities by providing access to a well-established sales platform with a distribution network in nine countries and client relationships in 40 countries,” said David Carroll, head of Wachovia’s Capital Management Group. “As a long-standing client of ECM, we’ve been impressed with their highly successful track record and we’re thrilled to bring their expertise and management capabilities under the Wachovia umbrella.”