Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, comments on the announcement that Liontrust is acquiring Neptune:
“The news that Liontrust have purchased Neptune continues a trend of consolidation in the asset management sector where small and medium sized asset managers are looking to scale up.
“The deal brings Liontrust some interesting exposure in areas it does not currently have funds, such as China, Russia, India and Technology. However, some of these funds are sub-scale with assets of less than £100m and it may be that in time these are non-core. It’s worth noting that there is overlap between Liontrust’s existing offerings and those they have acquired, notably in the UK and Europe, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some mergers to focus the fund range and make use of the savings that larger funds bring.”