Marlborough has added five new funds to its range with the acquisition of the UK investment arm of Sun Life Financial of Canada.
The takeover of SLFC Investment Managers UK increases the number of funds offered by Marlborough from 19 to 24, and boosts assets under management to just over £1bn.
SLFC IM (UK) has 13 unit trusts, of which five will become part of the Marlborough stable. These are: Marlborough Cash trust and Income & Growth trust, which will be managed in-house; the Emerging Markets trust run by Ignis; the European trust managed by Mirabaud; and the North American trust, run by Boston-based Emerson Capital Partners.
Another six of SLFC's funds invest in sectors already covered by Marlborough and will merge into the group's existing portfolios including Giles Hargreave's Special Situations fund.
A seventh, the SLFC Internet Tollkeeper trust, will merge with the MFM Techinvest Technology fund, for which Marlborough is the ACD. Meanwhile, the SLFC Japan trust will be close on 10 October due to its small size, with investors offered a free transfer into any other Marlborough fund.
Marlborough deputy chairman Nicholas Cooling says: "While the expansion of Marlborough as a fund house has long been our strategy, key to this was identifying the right funds to complement our existing range and the right people to run them.
"The compatibility of a number of the SLFC funds with our own in terms of investment objectives was one of the attractions of the acquisition.
Sun Life Financial of Canada acquired the investment manager as part of its purchase of the UK insurance business of Lincoln National Corporation in June 2009. However, it put the business up for sale in January following a strategic review.
