Waddell & Reed Acquires Securian’s Advantus Funds

Waddell & Reed Financial announced yesterday it will purchase Securian Financial Group’s subsidiary Advantus Capital Management, which has $2.1 billion in assets under management in the Advantus Funds and the Advantus Series Fund, Inc., a family of funds used as subaccounts in annuities and insurance. Those funds are included in products managed by Minnesota Life Insurance Company, another Securian subsidiary.

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 firm’s 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.

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