Great-West Lifeco set to Buy Putnam Investments

Power Corporation of Canada’s Great-West Lifeco ends much awaited speculation by announcing the acquirement of Putnam Investments from the Marsh & McLennan Companies for $3.9 billion approximately. The purchases of Putnam will double Great-West’s assets worldwide. Great-West claims to be a North America’s fifth-largest life insurer, its sister subsidiary, IGM Financial, manages about $92.4 billion in mutual funds, boosted it to Canada’s dominant company in the insurance business. To covert Putnam into the lucrative deal, IGM’s experience might be helpful to its investor retention as its main operating units Investors Group and Mackenzie Financial, have well-developed distribution networks that are particularly successful at luring and keeping clients. Putnam sold because of authoritarian issues that involved both Putnam and Marsh & McLennan. Putnam acquitted from trading practices by paying a $40 million fine and Marsh was accused of rigging bids for customers of its insurance brokerage unit in 2004. A lawsuit brought by Eliot Spitzer, then the New York attorney general, was settled with an $850 million payment that created investor pressure on Marsh to raise funds through an asset sale. Although Putnam’s acquisitions and further regulating by Power, Putnam will be operated as a separate company and will retain its current management and Boston headquarters.