Man Group Plc’ share price up, to acquire the US investment firm Pine Grove Asset Management LLC

The biggest publicly traded hedge-fund company in the world – Man Group Plc made a statement today, announcing that it agreed to purchase the investment firm Pine Grove Asset Management LLC. The goal of the acquisition is to add more customers and assets in the U.S., which is expected to help Man Group consolidate the hedge funds business of the company.

According to Man Group Plc statement, the acquisition of Pine Grove Asset Management LLC is planned to be finalized in the third quarter of the current financial year. The company refused to reveal what the exact price of the purchase will be.

As reported by the Financial Times, the President of Man Group – Mr. Luke Ellis said in the companys statement: “FRMs longstanding strategy has been to help investors use hedge funds to achieve their investment goals. Pine Grove has a long and accomplished track record of outperformance and is an excellent addition to the FRM business.”

Currently, Pine Grove, which was founded two decades ago, manages about 1 billion pounds of assets that will be added to the FRM unit of Man Group. The acquisition is considered beneficial for Man Group, because it will help it diversify its product offering and consolidate its presence in the U.S.

The purchase of Pine Grove follows Man Groups announcement in late May, which explained that the company is negotiating with Numeric Holdings. After the completion of the acquisition, the president of Pine Grove – Mr. Matthew Stadtmauer is set to become president of Man Groups FRM unit. Mr. Stadtmauer said in the statement, which was cited by Reuters: “We are now at the point in our evolution where the additional infrastructure, resources and support available at FRM will provide significant benefits to existing and future clients.”

The Chief Investment Officer of Pine Grove – Mr. Tom Williams will still be in charge of the investment decisions associated to the products and services of Pine Grove, and is expected to join the Investment Executive Committee of FRM division.

Mr. Williams also commented on the deal in a statement, which was cited by the Financial Times: “We are particularly excited about becoming part of FRM, which will provide us with world-class infrastructure, technology and resources, while allowing Pine Grove to maintain our entrepreneurial investment approach.”

Man Group Plc was adding 0.2% to trade at 102.50 pence per share by 11:37 GMT, marking a one year change of +8.01% and valuing the company at 1.81 billion pounds.