QMA, the quantitative manager owned by PGIM, has agreed to acquire Wadhwani Asset Management (WAM), a London-based quantitative investment firm with $1.4bn in assets. Financial terms of the transaction were not undisclosed.
Established in 2002, WAM focuses on quantitative macro hedge funds and risk premia strategies. The company has a workforce of 35 and serves institutional clients in the UK, continental Europe, Australia, Japan and the US.
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The acquisition will boost QMA’s total assets under management to around $130bn across more than 50 strategies.
QMA CEO and chairman Andrew Dyson said: “QMA has grown rapidly outside the U.S. over the past 12 months, and this acquisition is yet another milestone, as we continue to develop our global expansion strategy.
“In addition to extending QMA’s product set, this deal offers an appealing combination of access to complementary industry-leading products, with the benefit of greater breadth of geographic reach and operational scale.”
The deal is expected to be wrapped up in the first quarter of next year, subject to regulatory nod. QMA said that it will “invest significantly” in developing WAM after the acquisition.
WAM’s investment platform will retain its operational independence following the takeover. The company’s founder Sushil Wadhwani will remain its CIO.
“QMA and PGIM’s broad reach and quantitative focussed distribution capabilities are very attractive, as is their first-rate operational platform. My investment team and I were delighted to find a partner that will allow us to offer our clients richer options by combining what we do with QMA’s best-in-class products while also retaining our investment autonomy,” Sushil Wadhwani noted.
