Negotiations for the sale of Pilgrim Baxter & Associates to Nationwide Financial Services have ended, according to United Asset Management Corp., Pilgrim Baxter's owner, and Nationwide. United Asset Management (UAM) and Nationwide could not agree on the terms of the sale. According to published reports, Nationwide would have paid roughly $600 million for Pilgrim Baxter, a mutual fund company based in Wayne, Pa. Officials either declined comment or declined to provide details on why the sale talks failed.
UAM also declined to comment on whether Pilgrim Baxter remained for sale. UAM, a holding company based in Boston comprised primarily of institutional money management firms, remains committed to mutual funds, said Jonathan V. Hubbard, a spokesman for the company.
Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio with assets of nearly $60 billion, remains "committed to building additional asset management capabilities" despite the failure to complete the transaction, said Mark R. Thresher, a Nationwide vice president, in a statement.
The sale to Nationwide would have allowed Pilgrim Baxter to distribute its funds through Nationwide's extensive sales force. Earlier this year, Pilgrim Baxter added funds which can be sold with a sales charge, to its no-load fund offerings. Pilgrim Baxter has suffered about $2 billion in net redemptions this year through Aug. 31, with total assets of roughly $12.5 billion.
