John Hancock to Market Eight GMO Mutual Funds

John Hancock Financial Services, the Boston-based financial services company, continued its fund adoption strategy by entering into a sub-advisory agreement with high-end Boston-based institutional asset manager GMO. According to the agreement, John Hancock will market eight of GMO's funds in addition to the company's existing line of 32 open-end mutual funds, retaining GMO as sub-advisor.

"The objective is to take John Hancock funds from a second-tier fund company to a first-tier company, and we'll do it effectively overnight in this transaction," the company's President and Chief Executive Officer John D. DesPrez III, said in a Boston Globe report.

Executives reportedly said that the new deal is part of a significant expansion of the company's mutual fund unit, which will add 100 jobs and sales and other areas over the next year-and-a-half.

With roughly $86 billion in assets, GMO is a high-rated money manager with institutional and high-net-worth individual clients, which includes 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Adoption of the GMO's funds is John Hancock's sixth deal of this type over the past three years, followed by the similar agreements with Yeager, Wood & Marshall, Pzena Investment Management, Shay Assets Management, Independence Investment, and Light Index Investment Co.. John Hancock has $30 billion in assets and is a U.S. subsidiary of Toronto, Canada-based Manulife Financial Corp.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

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