Insight Investment buys RAM

The Rothschild Group has agreed to sell the retail and institutional asset management business of Rothschild Asset Management BV (RAM) for £61 million to Insight Investment.

The sale of RAM to Insight will have an effect on its shareholding agreement with Bank of Valletta, in Valletta Fund Management. RAM has been VFM's strategic partner since the inception of the company in 1995.

Valletta Fund Management chairman Joseph Zahra, together with VFM's director Frank Xerri de Caro and VFM's general manager Charles Borg, recently returned from London, where preliminary talks were held with Insight executives.

Speaking on his return, Mr Zahra said "discussions with Insight executives are expected to be concluded in a few weeks time, and we will then be in a position to provide more detailed information".

Insight Investment is the investment division of the Halifax and Bank of Scotland, (HBOS), with assets under management of £56.8 billion.

HBOS, one of the leading financial services companies in the UK, forms part of the FTSE 100 Index and is also the fifth largest bank in the UK, with assets exceeding £312 billion represented by over 20 million customers.

The RAM and Insight deal is still subject to the UK's Financial Services Authority's approval and is expected to be completed by the end of January 2003.