Richard Daly and his team just sealed another deal in the mutual fund space. The deal also entails an alliance with Thomson Reuters, parent of mutual fund ratings and data specialist Lipper.

Today Daly, Broadridge's president and CEO, unveiled a deal to buy the fiduciary services and competitive intelligence unit of Thomson Reuters Lipper. The acquired businesses will fall under Broadridge's Access Data product suite, which is led by Dan Cwenar.

Pricing and terms of the deal were not disclosed. It's slated to close by the end of this quarter (which is Broadridge's fiscal Q4 2015).

The acquired Thomson Reuters Unit notably includes Thomson Reuters Lipper's 15(c) board reporting fiduciary services (which helps fund boards benchmark their funds' fees). The deal also includes a competitive intelligence business that provides a global, cross-border view of flows for about 80,000 funds worldwide, by channel and by category. And Broadridge will gain access to what Cwenar describes as Lipper's "treasure trove of data ... on a long-term basis."

Thomson Reuters spokesman Lem Brewster clarifies that Thomson Reuters' Advisory Contract Renewal 15(c), FundFile, SalesWatch, and Marketplace services are all part of the sale. Brewster confirms that managing director Lars Asplund, "and his leadership team," will stay at Thomson Reuters.

"Thomson Reuters has identified, in Broadridge, a buyer for non-core services who will further develop the services and work with Thomson Reuters to serve their clients," Brewster tells MFWire in an e-mailed statement. "The objective of the sale is to enable us to dedicate more resources to our primary business of providing content for the mutual fund industry and to add capabilities and functionality designed to support the asset management and wealth management markets."

Brewster says that "service will continue uninterrupted" on the services that Broadridge is taking over and that the same team will move over Broadridge as part of the deal. Cwenar estimates that between 40 and 50 Thomson Reuters employees (spread between: Denver, Colorado; London, England; and Gdynia, Poland) will join Broadridge as part of the deal. He says that the global fund flows intelligence offerings will fit in with Access Data's existing efforts to help fundster with revenue data, while the 15(c) board reporting will fit in with Access's existing 22c-2 efforts. And he praises Thomson Reuters Lipper's proprietary categorization scheme for funds, which he describes as being "very well known" on the other side of the Atlantic.

"A number of very talented people are coming along," Cwenar tells MFWire, adding that the Thomson Reuters business "fits so logically."

As for other acquisitions, Cwenar says that Broadridge is "always on the hunt" in this space.

"We're always looking for new sources of information," Cwenar says. 

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