Federated Investors, Inc. announced that a definitive agreement was reached among Federated Investors, Inc., Northwestern Mutual and Mason Street Advisors, LLC, a wholly-owned company of Northwestern Mutual.
The agreement relates to the proposed acquisition of approximately $200 million in mutual fund assets by Federated Mid-Cap Index Fund from Mason Street Index 400 Stock Fund. The financial terms of the definitive agreement were not disclosed. The announcement was made by J. Christopher Donahue, president and CEO of Federated Investors.
The boards of directors of the Federated funds and the Mason Street funds unanimously approved the planned transaction, which is now subject to the approval of Mason Street fund shareholders. It is anticipated that the Mason Street fund shareholder meeting to approve these transactions will be held in March 2006.
“Federated’s Mid-Cap Index Fund is an excellent option for our Index 400 shareholders,” said Mark Doll, president of Mason Street Funds. “The Federated Mid-Cap Index Fund has the same investment objective, solid history of investment performance and lower expenses than our Mason Street Index 400 Stock Fund, all of which will be available to our shareholders.”
“Acquisitions like this one with Mason Street enable Federated to grow our assets under management and allow Mason Street shareholders to leverage Federated’s investment expertise, competitive performance and product breadth,” Donahue said.
A proxy related to the transaction will be filed with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission on or before Dec. 30, 2005.
The deal represents Federated’s fourth acquisition of stock or bond fund assets in the last two years. Additionally, Federated acquired the $19.3 billion cash management business of Alliance Capital Management L.P. during Q1 and Q2 2005.