Invesco Agrees to Buy Guggenheim Investments' ETF Business for $1.2 BillionInvesco Agrees to Buy Guggenheim Investments' ETF Business for $1.2 Billion

By Jennifer Ablan and Trevor Hunnicutt

NEW YORK, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Invesco Ltd said onThursday that it has agreed to acquire Guggenheim Investments'exchange-traded funds (ETF) business, which includes $36.7billion of assets under management as of Aug. 31.

Under terms of the definitive agreement, Invesco, theworld's fourth largest ETF manager, will acquire GuggenheimInvestments' ETF business for $1.2 billion in cash. Thetransaction will be funded with a combination of cash and debt.

With the addition, Invesco's ETF assets under managementwould total more than $196 billion globally, based on bothfirms' ETF assets as of Aug. 31.

"This combination will further strengthen our market shareand position by providing greater access to key channels andexpanding the scale and relevance of our global ETF business,"Dan Draper, global head of ETFs at Invesco said in a statement.

"The addition builds on our existing self-indexingcapability and brings the highly popular BulletShares(®) ETFs,both of which will further strengthen our ability to helpclients achieve their investment objectives."

The sale comes as Guggenheim faces questions about itsexecutive leadership, including the fate of its chief executiveofficer, Mark Walter, as well as clients' questioning recentchanges in its sales group. Guggenheim's global chief investmentofficer, Scott Minerd, earlier this month told Reuters that heis focused on growing the firm, which as of June 30 had $290billion under management.

Jerry Miller, president of Guggenheim Investments, said in astatement of the agreement with Invesco: "We believe thattoday's transaction paves the way for future growth by allowingus to sharpen our focus on core strengths including activeportfolio management - across both our institutional strategiesand in our retail businesses."(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing byLeslie Adler)