Boston-based Babson Capital Management is selling off its $1.5 billion private-client business and transferring its $5 billion equity-asset ...

Boston-based Babson Capital Management is selling off its $1.5 billion private-client business and transferring its $5 billion equity-asset operations to the institutional arm of the Oppenheimer Funds. Both Babson and Oppenheimer are owned by Springfield-based MassMutual Group. The company stressed that Babson Capital, formerly known as David L. Babson & Co, will continue its operations at Boston’s Independence Wharf. Oppenheimer also plans to move workers to the site. Around 30 Babson staff are to be made redundant as a result of the deal, including analysts, portfolio managers, traders and back-office personnel. Industry observers said the active-equities management arm of Babson, which was established in 1940 and purchased in 1995 by MassMutual, is being re-engineered as the firm moves to serve only large institutional investors, including MassMutual itself. The company will continue to employ more than 600 workers, most of them in Springfield, said the company in a statement. Babson has around $90 billion in assets under management, though much of that is MassMutual’s funds from its own insurance business.