Franklin Templeton to Buy Putnam

As part of the deal, Great-West will provide an initial long-term allocation of $25 billion to Franklin Templeton to manage.

Franklin said in the statement that the deal for Putnam, which was founded in 1937, expands the firm’s insurance industry and retirement assets, as well adding to its business of managing mutual funds.

Franklin will now manage about $90 billion in defined-contribution retirement assets as well as about $150 billion in insurance assets, according to the company. Franklin said it will seek to overhaul smaller funds.

Related: Putnam Launches 5 ESG ETFs

For Montreal-based Power, a sale would close the book on a long-term investment that didn’t work out.

Great-West acquired Putnam for about C$4.6 billion ($3.4 billion) in a deal announced in 2007. At the time, Putnam had nearly $200 billion in assets under management, but the firm has struggled to stem client redemptions.

In Wednesday’s deal, Franklin Templeton is acquiring funds from Putnam that manage $136 billion.

PanAgora Asset Management Inc., a quantitative shop that handles about $33 billion, is not included in the transaction.

(Photos: Wikipedia Commons, upper image, and Shutterstock, lower image)