Threadneedle eyes property M&A

By Claire Milhench

LONDON (Reuters) - Fund house Threadneedle is seeking acquisitions to diversify its real estate and fixed income businesses, chief executive Crispin Henderson said.

He told Reuters in an interview that Threadneedle's property business is currently focused on the British commercial sector. "We want to see this become a European and global property business, and we are looking to acquire a capability to help us do that," he said.

"This is an M&A priority," he said at the Fund Forum annual industry conference in Monaco this week.

In Europe he said he would look for a property business with a book of about 2 billion pounds spread across four or five countries.

Within fixed income, he said that Threadneedle -- owned by Ameriprise Financial (AMP.N) -- already has a large book of business, but a lot of this came via former owner Zurich Financial Services (ZURN.VX), and he was keen to diversify this.

"We have seen a lot of net new inflows into fixed income but if there was a high margin bond business on the market we would be interested. I am thinking not so much of a liability driven investment type business -- more absolute return."

He stressed that Threadneedle would only look at acquisitions that would be simple to bolt on: "We don't want it to affect performance."

REOPENING STANCHART FUNDS?