Federated Investors Inc. has a deal to buy a mutual fund to expand international capabilities.
The Pittsburgh company said Monday that it would acquire the fund, the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio, from Rochdale Investment Management LLC of New York.
J. Christopher Donahue, Federated's president and chief executive officer, said in an interview Monday that the $321 million fund, which invests in international stocks, would increase his company's international assets under management 14.8%, to $2.521 billion.
Federated manages 148 funds and has had its own family of international funds since the mid-1990s, but this would be its first acquisition of an international fund, Mr. Donahue said. It wanted to buy an international fund because such products have generated strong returns and even stronger inflows in the past year industrywide, he said.
"Companies are moving into other jurisdiction away from home," he said. "People are recognizing that there are strong rewards, returns, and flows overseas."
The Rochdale fund offers strong organic growth opportunities similar those Federated has seen with its other acquisitions, Mr. Donahue said.
For example, since acquiring the Cambridge, Mass., firm MDTA LLC in the second half of last year, Federated has increased MDTA's assets under management 19.4%, to $8 billion.
The deal for the Rochdale fund is expected to close next quarter. Its assets would be moved into the Federated InterContinental Fund, which was created specifically for this acquisition.
The Rochdale fund has an overall 5-star rating, the top grade available, from Morningstar Inc.
Federated had $237.4 billion of assets under management on Dec. 31. It is scheduled to announce its first-quarter results Thursday.
