Quantcast
The MFWire
Manage Email Alerts | Sponsorships | About MFWire | Who We Are

Subscribe to MFWire.com's News Alerts [click]

Rating:A Chicago-D.C. Merger Creates a $15B AM Not Rated 0.0 Email Routing List Email & Route  Print Print
Thursday, May 2, 2024

A Chicago-D.C. Merger Creates a $15B AM

Reported by Neil Anderson, Managing Editor

Sibling asset managers in the Mid-Atlantic and Illinois have combined into a firm that has about 75 people on staff, working with about $15 billion in assets. And their parent company has rebranded, too.

Alexander Robert "Alex" Morris
F/m Investments
CEO, Chief Investment Officer
On Tuesday, Alex Morris, CEO and chief investment officer of F/m Investments [profile], and Craig Vanucci, senior managing director of Ziegler Capital Management (dba ZCM), confirmed that Washington, D.C.-based F/m and Chicago-based ZCM have merged into one organization. The combined organization goes by the "F/m Investments" name.

Morris confirms that Diffractive Managers Group, the parent of F/m and ZCM, has transformed into "F/m Managers Group." And the combined F/m Investments' distribution and marketing organization now goes by "F/m Distribution," led by Morris' partner, former F/m Investments CEO Dave Littleton, who also serves as president of F/m Managers Group. Diffractive bought F/m in early 2023. Morris stepped in to start leading ZCM last year, even as Littleton stepped up to lead Diffractive.

"We did this slowly," Morris tells MFWire, noting that ZCM and F/m have been "sharing operations and sales resources" for more than a year, and having joint investment committee meetings for half a year. "We started sharing some investment ideas, some personnel, investment systems ... and now the last stage is fully integrating."

"Obviously we now have a bigger, strong back office that we're consolidating to a single set of systems," Morris says, noting that "the hardest work" went to folks handling "behind-the-scenes stuff" on compliance and legal issues.

"The team here expands, and everyone gets a new colleague," Morris adds. He notes that the merger involves no changes in portfolio management. "Now they're supported by more folks that can back them up, more resources."

While F/m offers ETFs and active mutual funds, ZCM did a lot of institutional SMA business, Morris confirms. The combined firm offers about 45 strategies in total, and Morris notes that about a dozen groups of those strategies (including three varieties of ETFs) are "actively marketed."

"There is a small amount of overlap in the parties and the platforms that we knew, but there was no real overlap in any of the investment content that we have," Morris says, noting that the two firms' fixed income offerings focus on different parts of the fixed income world. "It's a fairly robust platform with very few gaps that we're missing at this point."

"This is one of those chocolate-meets-peanut-butter-and-you-actually-get-a-Reese's-cup moments," Morris adds.

Morris explains the brand consolidation and the choice of variations on the "F/m" name going forward.

"F/m has become a bit of a brand ... It had some momentum behind it, and it seemed to resonate with people," Morris says. "Ziegler has always had a variety of brand names that it's operated. Over time you'll see some of those retired out."

Yet not all of F/m Investments' brands will consolidate. Morris confirms that the Red Granite brand from ZCM will remain, as will ZCM's ZCM Advisory Group brand. The latter, he notes, works heavily with the Ziegler bank, a former parent of ZCM.

Overall, Morris puts the merger and branding updates in the context of F/m "growing quickly" and offering "a simple story" to the marketplace, even as they keep their "smaller boutique mentality of over-service."

"This is an effort to streamline how investors see us and contact us, without being confused ... Let's just do away with the needless complexity of all of it and focus on delivering investment solutions," Morris says. "Clients are happy ... They want the same level of service, but they always like it if you're a little bit bigger!" 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE

0.0
 Do You Recommend This Story?



GO TO: MFWire
Return to Top
 News Archives
2025: Q3Q2Q1
2024: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2023: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2022: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2021: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2020: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2019: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2018: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2017: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2016: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2015: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2014: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2013: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2012: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2011: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2010: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2009: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2008: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2007: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2006: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2005: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2004: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2003: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2002: Q4Q3Q2Q1
 Subscribe via RSS:
Raw XML
Add to My Yahoo!
follow us in feedly


    Sorry, no records in the database matched your search parameters. Clich back and try again.



  1. Nicsa webinar - New research by Alex Edmans and the Diversity Project - The Power of diverse thinking: How the best teams make decisions, July 1
  2. MFDF Director Discussion Series - Open Forum, July 9
  3. MFDF webinar - Mid-Year Tax Update for Registered Investment Companies, July 10
  4. MFDF Director Discussion Series - Open Forum (Philadelphia), July 15
  5. 2025 MMI Women in Advisory Solutions Forum, Jul 15-16
  6. Nicsa webinar - How Trusted GenAI is Transforming Data Access in Asset Management, July 16
  7. MFDF webinar - M&A and Consolidation in Asset Management, July 16
  8. MFDF webinar - ETF Conversions, July 17
  9. MFDF Director Discussion Series - Open Forum (New York), July 22
  10. MFDF Ask Anything webinar - AI Edition, July 24
  11. MFDF webinar - Use of Derivatives by RICs, July 29
  12. MFDF Director Discussion Series - Open Forum (Columbus, Ohio), August 20
  13. Samfund Soiree Boston 2025, August 21
  14. MFDF webinar - The Audit Committee Chair's Guide to Balancing Duties and Emerging Issues, September 3
  15. ICI ETF Conference, Sep 8-10
  16. Nicsa webinar - Reimagining Reconciliation: AI, Regulation, and Capital Markets Transformation, September 10
  17. MFDF webinar - Series Trust Funds - Compliance and Board Reporting, September 10
  18. MFDF In Focus - Board Oversight of DEI in Current Landscape, September 11
  19. MFDF webinar - MFDF 15(c) White Paper Webinar Series: Part 4 – Enforcement Action Takeaways, September 16
  20. MFDF webinar - Latest in Closed-End Funds Litigations, September 23
  21. MFDF webinar - Fixed Income Insights: Navigating Market Trends & Opportunities, September 24
  22. MFDF webinar - Risk Management Essentials for RICs and Boards, September 29
  23. MFDF webinar - Diligent - Tools for Fund Board Book, October 1
  24. 10th annual Fuse Forum, October 8
  25. MFDF webinar - Essential Strategies in Board Oversight of Operational Risk Management, October 14
  26. 2025 MMI Annual Conference, Oct 15-17




©All rights reserved to InvestmentWires, Inc. 1997-2025
14 Wall Street | 20th Floor | New York, NY 10005 | P: 212-331-8968 | F: 212-331-8998
Privacy Policy :: Terms of Use