The purchase price is $26 million. The assets will transition to Waddell over a period of six months.
As part of the deal, Wadell & Reed plans to merge Advantus $150 million in assets in qualified separate accounts into its newly acquired Ivy Funds.
Keith A. Tucker, chairman and chief executive officer of Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc., said the acquisition was part of the firms efforts to expand its distribution.
Also yesterday, Waddell reported sharply lower first-quarter net earnings of $1.6 million, down from $24.8 million in the first quarter of 2002. The firm said that excluding equity compensation, whereby it spent $27.7 million to buy back certain stock options in exchange for restricted stock, first quarter results would have been $19.2 million.
