A subsidiary of Schroders, the UK asset manager, has acquired a 49 per cent stake in RWC Partners, another London-based firm with $2.2 billion of assets under management. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Following the deal RWC will remain a separate legal entity and will continue to be managed by its existing team, Schroders said in a statement. The 49 per cent stake was acquired mainly from existing third party, individual shareholders, it continued.

The acquisition follows news last month that the top-rated managers of Schroder’s UK Equity Income Fund - Nick Purves and Ian Lance - had departed the firm to join RWC. Purves was a veteran of some 16 years at Schroders while Lance joined the firm in 2007; in his prior career Lance was head of global equity research at Gartmore and head of European equities at Citigroup. 

On joining RWC in August, Purves and Lance will manage both the Value and Income funds at RWC.