Patrick Cunningham and his team are about to buy a mutual fund shop with more than $3 billion in AUM.

Patrick Cunningham Manning & Napier Chief Executive Officer

This morning Cunningham, CEO of Manning & Napier [profile], confirms that the Fairport, New York-based, publicly-traded mutual fund shop will buy a 75-percent stake in Seattle-based Rainier Investment Management [profile]. Manning will shell out an undisclosed cash upfront payment, followed by a four-year earnout. Manning expects the deal to close in the first half of 2016.

Cunningham plans to keep Rainier's investment team in Seattle and autonomous from Manning's, and he doesn't plan on making any "changes to either firm's investment personnel or processes." Rainier has more than $3 billion in AUM as of November 30, and Manning had $37.2 billion as of September 30.

"Rainier's investment expertise provides us the opportunity to continue to grow and diversify our business while keeping our research team focused on the investment strategies and processes that have driven Manning & Napier's success for 45 years," Cunningham states -- pointing in particular to expanding Manning's defined contribution investment-only (DC I-O) offerings with Rainier's "market capitalization-based equity strategies."

Jim Ridgeway, president of Rainier, describes the deal as a way to "provide the financial, structural and distribution resources" to help Rainier serve its clients and grow.

Rainier dates back to 1989 and spun out fully from Rainier Bank of Seattle in 1991. 

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