The Henderson Global Investors is amping up their U.S. distribution, especially in the institutional channel, as they digest an acquisition.

This week the Chicago-based U.S. arm of the British multinational asset manager confirmed the close of its up-to-$200-million purchase of Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Geneva Capital Management. And Henderson also just unveiled a new mutual fund targeted across different channels.

In June, Henderson publicly revealed the Geneva acquisition [see our past coverage, here and here].

Geneva is a small- and mid-cap equity shop focused on the institutional space, with $5.4 billion in institutional assets under management. Prior to the deal, in the U.S., Henderson had $10 billion in retail AUM and $1.4 billion in institutional AUM, so the buying Geneva quadrupled Henderson's institutional reach here. Chuck Thompson, who has served as Henderson's director of sales since June, now serves as head of North American distribution, and Nick Bauer from Geneva is joining Thompson's team as head of U.S. institutional distribution.

Watch for Thompson and Bauer to work on bringing Henderson's existing (mostly retail) offerings to the institutional market, while also potentially bringing Geneva's offerings to the retail space.

Thompson's distribution team is now 44, including 26 client facing folks such as internal wholesalers, external sales executives, consultant relations specialist, and key accounts executives.

"We're continuing to grow," Thompson tells MFWire. "The next 90 days is going to be about integrating the team, introducing our clients to the new opportunities and introducing Nick [Bauer] to Henderson's institutional clients."

As for Henderson's latest U.S. mutual fund, the Henderson International Select Equity Fund, it launched with different share classes priced for retail investors, institutional investors and retirement plans.

"This is a window to the future of what we'd like to do," Thompson says, adding that international equity is a "core competency" for the global asset manager.

Next over the horizon is an international long-short equity fund, which is slated for a late December launch [see filing]. 

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