Hennessy Advisors on Thursday wrapped up a deal, first unveiled in June, to purchase the assets of the Sparx Japan Fund and Sparx Japan Smaller Companies Fund, which have $74 million of AUM between them. The transaction is the Novato, California-based fund firm's sixth since the summer of 2000 and Hennessy president Kevin Rowell said the company continues to sniff around for more deals.

"We continue to look at acquisitions," Rowell told The MFWire on Friday. "This is a great opportunity to bring undiscovered managers to the marketplace."

"The pricing is very attractive right now," he added.

The purchase price for the two Sparx funds was not made public.

Hennessy remains on the hunt for "managers that have a great investment process but not the wherewithal to grapple with distribution," Rowell said.

Hennessy rechristened the funds Hennessy Select Sparx Japan Fund and Hennessy Select Sparx Smaller Companies Fund. It retained Tokyo-based Sparx Asset Management as the funds' sub-advisor.

The funds are among the few US-distributed Japan funds that are actually managed by a Japan-based portfolio management team, Rowell said.

The deal marks Hennessy's sixth transaction since June 2000. More recently, it acquired the assets of the Tamarack Large Cap Growth Fund and Tamarack Value Fund from Voyageur Asset Management.

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Company Press Release

NOVATO, Calif., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hennessy Advisors, Inc. (OTCBulletinBoard: HNNA) today announced that it has closed a deal with SPARX Investment & Research, USA, Inc. to acquire the assets related to the management of the SPARX Japan Fund and SPARX Japan Smaller Companies Fund. The acquisition represents approximately $74 million in assets.

Effective today, Hennessy Advisors will manage the SPARX Funds and they have been renamed the Hennessy Select SPARX Japan Fund and Hennessy Select SPARX Japan Smaller Companies Fund. Hennessy Advisors has retained SPARX Asset Management Co., Ltd., located in Tokyo, as the Funds' sub-advisor to manage the portfolios of the two funds.

"We are pleased to welcome the SPARX shareholders and the SPARX Asset Management team to the Hennessy Funds Select Series family. We believe this partnership will offer our new shareholders outstanding US-based customer service and business management, while maintaining strong and focused Japan-based portfolio management," said Neil Hennessy, Chairman, CEO and President of Hennessy Advisors, Inc. "We are excited to have entered the Japanese investment market and believe the Nikkei is poised for sustainable growth. Valuations for Japanese stocks remain at historically low levels, and we believe that many Japanese companies are uniquely well positioned to exploit future growth opportunities in Asia," he commented.

"We are aggressively building our Select Series of funds and are pleased to now offer international products to our investors," said Kevin Rowell, President of Hennessy Funds. "We are thrilled to be working with such a well respected and talented asset manager. SPARX epitomizes the type of highly qualified category experts we employ as sub-advisors for our Select Funds," he added.

About Hennessy Advisors, Inc.

Hennessy Advisors, Inc. is a publicly traded investment advisor to an entire family of mutual funds. Hennessy Advisors, Inc. is committed to their time-tested stock selection strategies, disciplined money management approach and superior service to shareholders.

About SPARX Asset Management

About SPARX Asset Management Co., Ltd.

SPARX Asset Management Co., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SPARX Group Co., Ltd., a publicly traded asset manager based in Tokyo, Japan. Since its founding in 1989, SPARX has grown into one of the largest and most experienced Asia-based asset management specialists. SPARX's extensive experience in Japan and throughout Asia over the past two decades offers investors keen insights into opportunities throughout the region.

 

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