The Houston insurer American General Corp. is buying the assets of CypressTree Investments Inc., a small, privately held investment management company in Boston, according to a regulatory filing.
Neither company would discuss the deal. However, a source familiar with American General said it would give a lift to the company's tiny mutual fund business, which was launched about a year ago. The American General Fund Group had 23 funds with $600 million of assets under management on Jan. 31, according to Lipper Inc., of Summit, N.J., a Reuters company.
According to the Securities Exchange Commission filing, the purchase would result in the termination of the investment advisory agreement between CypressTree Asset Management Corp. and the North American Funds. CypressTree Asset Management would also cease to be the investment adviser of the CypressTree Senior Floating Rate Fund, and would be renamed American General Asset Management Corp.
North American's board of trustees and the board of directors of the CypressTree Senior Floating Rate Fund approved an interim agreement on Feb. 27, whereby American General Asset Management would remain investment adviser to the funds for up to 150 days.
Shareholders of North American and the CypressTree fund will vote June 1 on whether to adopt a new two-year investment advisory agreement, the SEC filing said.
The North American Funds, which consist of 15 open-end funds and a closed-end fund, had $1.1 billion of assets under management on Jan. 31, Lipper said. The funds are subadvised by various managers. Five of them will be subadvised by American General on an interim basis, but a new two-year agreement could be approved at the June meeting, the filing said.
The CypressTree Senior Floating Fund had $88.1 million of assets under management on Jan. 31, Lipper said.
Bradford K. Gallagher, chairman and president of CypressTree Asset Management, is expected to resign from the North American and CypressTree fund boards when the deal is complete, the filing said.
Alice T. Kane, president of American General Fund Group, would then become chairwoman.
