Treasury gets some Souls

Treasury Group has agreed to acquire Australian equity manager Souls Funds Management, striking a deal with parent company Washington H Soul Pattinson.

Treasury’s managing director Mark Burgess said as a specialist small cap manager, Souls fills a gap in the current stable of boutique asset managers in which Treasury has a stake.

“We were able to purchase them at an extremely advantageous price for us,” Burgess said, adding that they were acquiring a “very high quality team”.

Burgess said the acquisition was beneficial to both sides, which have met in the past to canvass the possibility but it only came to fruition recently when Souls was “looking to sell”.

“For Treasury it was a very attractive deal,” Burgess acknowledged. “And Souls likes the fact that we just do asset management here.”

The group has had a busy couple of months; its recent expansion included a move into absolute return investing with its 30 per cent acquisition of AR Capital Management earlier this month.

Burgess said the group, which also holds equity in Premium Investors and Global Value Investors, now has all aspects of global investing covered. Treasury also has equity stakes in value managers Investors Mutual and Cannae Capital Partners, as well as growth manager Orion.