Short Takes: Affiliated Managers Buying Stakes in 2 Firms

Affiliated Managers Group Inc., an investment management holding company launched in 1993 by former Boston Co. president William J. Nutt, has wooed two more companies to its fold.

The Boston-based company said Wednesday it has a definitive agreement to take a significant minority stake in GeoCapital, a New York investment firm that manages $2 billion, mostly in small-capitalization companies. Neither the terms nor the expected closing date were disclosed.

Two days earlier, Affiliated announced a similar deal with Tweedy, Browne Co., also of New York, which manages $5 billion for institutions and wealthy individuals. Terms of this deal, slated to close in the fall, were not disclosed.

The transactions would give the company 10 affiliates, and upon closing would bring total assets under management to $41 billion. To preserve a degree of autonomy for the firms it invests in, Affiliated makes only minority investments.

Mr. Nutt, Affiliated's president, said Tweedy Browne "is widely recognized as one of the foremost practitioners of value investing." Of GeoCapital he said, "We are extremely impressed with (the firm's) systematic and fundamentally driven investment process."