Ignis

Standard Life Investments has agreed to buy Ignis Asset Management for £390m, in a move which will also see the group work more closely with Ignis' parent Phoenix Group.

Standard Life has tabled a reported £400m bid for Ignis Asset Management.

COMMENT

Ignis is to shut Graham Ashby's UK Enhanced Income fund and Mark Holden's UK Focus as it moves to streamline its range of products.

As the latest figures from the IMA show Absolute Return funds have seen their highest retail sales for over four years, Standard Life Investments' phenomenally successful GARS fund is starting to face more competition from peers.

Ignis Asset Management is closing a number of offshore funds - and re-launching others - as it moves to merge away its Irish-domiciled fund range into its Luxembourg SICAV.

A large proportion of funds in the IMA UK Smaller Companies sector have failed to produce alpha over the long term, amid a strong rally in small-cap stocks.

The £1bn UK Commercial Property trust run by Ignis Asset Management has cut both its fees and its dividend in a move to a 'more sustainable policy'.

George Shaw, manager of the Ignis UK Property fund, argues the case for investors burned during the crisis to revisit the commercial property market.

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