Macquarie to acquire global, Japanese equity manager ValueInvest

Macquarie Investment Management on Monday announced it agreed to acquire ValueInvest Asset Management, a global and Japanese value equity manager.

Terms were not disclosed.

ValueInvest, based in Luxembourg, managed €4 billion ($4.8 billion) as of Dec. 31, according to a joint news release from both firms.

Jesper Alsing, ValueInvest CEO, and Jens Hansen, managing director and chief investment officer, will remain in those roles and report to John Leonard, global head of equities at Macquarie Investment Management, Mr. Leonard said in an interview.

ValueInvest will join Macquarie's multiboutique equity unit, which will have 14 different boutiques on its platform, Mr. Leonard said.

ValueInvest's strategies are "quite new" for the equity platform, Mr. Leonard said. "We try to bring in managers whose strategies are new and additive, not to have them compete with other of our boutiques." Mr. Leonard said ValueInvest will maintain its investment autonomy.

While Mr. Leonard would not specifically comment on further boutique acquisitions, he said, "adding managers is absolutely something we'd like to pursue."

Macquarie Investment Management had $368.6 billion in assets under management, including $88 billion in equities, as of Dec. 31, according to its website.