Friends Ivory & Sime's £240m (€386.4m) takeover of Royal & SunAlliance's investment arm has created the makings of a decent firm, say consultants.
Together the firms will manage £70bn, dominated by Friends Provident and Royal & SunAlliance life assurance funds. One consultant says: 'They will be a rather UK-orientated firm. But there are managers within it capable of forging good performance numbers.'