Invesco (IVZ) Eyes Guggenheim Partners' $30B ETF Business

Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ) is in talks to acquire the exchange-traded funds (ETF) business of Guggenheim Partners LLC in an effort to expand its asset class. As per people familiar with the matter, Invesco may offer $2 billion.

The ETF business includes a portfolio of fixed income securities that are traded under the name of BulletShares. The business of Guggenheim is said to have assets under management (AUM) worth more than $30 billion.

ETFs are one of the fastest-growing products in the asset management industry. It allows investors the ease of trading the entire portfolio of stocks against trading only one stock. They are often constructed to track a broad market index, which can be done at quite a low cost.

Invesco, the fourth-largest ETF provider in the world, which had $858 billion in AUM as of Jun 30, 2017, has already made such deals. In April, it announced plans to buy a London-based ETF provider, Source, with $25 billion in AUM. If the deal with Guggenheim is finalized, it will be an addition to the already expanding portfolio, which offers ETFs under the PowerShares label.

Invesco’s top line has seen growth owing to continued improvement in its AUM balance. If the deal takes place, further improvement is expected in this regard.

The rumors came amid disputes and disagreements over key management appointments by Chief Executive Officer Mark Walter and Global Chief Investment Officer Scott Minerd. This led to the exit of top managers and discomfort among customers.

Shares of Invesco have lost 6% over the last three months versus the industry’s rally of 10.3%.

Currently, Invesco carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks from the same space are Woori Bank (NYSE:WF) , Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) and Cohen & Steers Inc (NYSE:CNS) each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Woori Bank’s Zacks Consensus Estimate has been revised 15% upward for the current year over the last 30 days. Also, its share price has jumped 28.9% over the last three months.

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC witnessed upward earnings estimate revision of 5.6% for the current year over the past 30 days. Also, its share price has gone up 20.73% over the last three months.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cohen & Steers Inc. has seen an upward estimate revision of 2.5% for the current year over the last 30 days. Its share price has seen a 2.61% rise over the last three months.

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