(Crain) — Morningstar Inc. said Monday it has entered an agreement to buy Paris-based Seeds Group, a French company with 12 employees that provides investment consulting and fund research to institutional investors.
Chicago-based Morningstar and Seeds didn’t provide financial terms of the agreement. The two companies expect to complete the transaction in the next few months.
Morningstar has been buying up companies both in the U.S. and abroad to expand its services and geographic reach.
Most of the purchase prices over the past year were $52 million or less in cases where terms were disclosed.
So far this year, Morningstar has bought five companies, including Australian firm Aegis Equities Research and Horsham, Pa.-based structured finance research firm Realpoint LLC.
Seeds Group has about 30 clients and provides services to pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, banks and brokerage firms. The firm specializes in asset liability management, manager selection and financial plan construction, among other areas.
Morningstar CEO and majority owner Joe Mansueto said in the release that Seed Group’s expertise in alternative investments will bolster Morningstar’s fund-of-funds investing.
Morningstar shares fell 20 cents to $47.64 in early trading.
No comments:
Post a Comment