Man completes purchase of GLG Partners

Man Group has completed its purchase of GLG Partners, creating a diversified fund group running $63bn of assets.

Following completion of the takeover, GLG is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Man.

Peter Clarke, Man's chief executive, says: "The acquisition is a significant milestone in Man's development.

"Investors are now able to gain access to managed futures, equity, credit, emerging markets, global macro, across single manager funds, managed accounts, multi-manager portfolios and structured products."

Clarke's rationale for the takeover of GLG - to complement Man's flagship quantitative fund AHL with GLG's discretionary management skills - has been vindicated this year as Man's shares have moved in line with the performance of AHL.

Morgan Stanley calculates Man relies on AHL alone for about three-quarters of its profits.

In July analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods gave Man's shares an "underperform" rating based partly on concerns over AHL's performance.

Yesterday Man jumped 4.7% on news AHL had returned 4.5% in a week and was within 2% of the threshold at which it could collect lucrative performance fees.