Not one to be left out after the big Rydex deal, IXIS Asset Management has just made an asset manager purchase of its own. The Boston firm has entered into an agreement to buy Gateway Investment Advisers, a Cincinnati-based investment manager with $7.5 billion in assets under management.

Terms of the deal were not made public.

MerrilL Lynch advised IXIS on the deal. Gateway, for its part, was represented by Mitchell Advisers of Atlanta.

"IXIS is looking to capitalize on the use of hedged-equity strategies. They would play well in the retirement market," IXIS spokesperson Peter Joyce told The MFWire.

Gateway operates two open mutual funds, as well as four closed-end funds, that use hedged-equity strategies.

"Gateway fills an important niche in the NATIXIS family of investment companies, and we are very happy they have chosen to join us," said Pierre Servant, head of the asset management business at NATIXIS, IXIS Asset Management's Paris-based parent, in a news release. Servant is also president and chief executive of IXIS Asset Management US Group.

The MFWire reported in April that IXIS was one of the bidders for Rydex (see Rydex' Sale: Will the Best Man Win?, April 9, 2007).

According to the news release, Gateway will operate as an autonomous organization, retaining its brand name and headquarters in Cincinnati. The Gateway investment staff will remain iin place and will continue to implement the firm’s hedged equity strategy.

"We are very excited about the opportunities we are seeing out of our new relationship with NATIXIS, particularly the chance to reach a significantly broadened client base through their distribution organizations in their asset management business," said Patrick Rogers, Gateway's president and chief executive officer.  

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