The parent of Columbia Threadneedle [profile] is in the market for more asset management acquisitions, especially smaller deals.

James Michael Cracchiolo Ameriprise Financial Chairman and CEO

Yesterday Jim Cracchiolo, chairman and CEO of Ameriprise Financial, confirmed that the publicly traded brokerage continues to be interested in small, "bolt-on" deals in the asset management space. Cracchiolo was responding to questions from analysts — Ryan Krueger on KBW and Alex Blostein of Goldman Sachs — on Ameriprise's Q3 2018 earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

"We think that will be appropriate for us to continue to build out rather than organically build some areas where we don't have the expertise," Cracchiolo said.

Yet Cracchiolo did not close the door to big asset management deals, like when Ameriprise bought Columbia.

"We would entertain an appropriate larger deal," Cracchiolo said. "We've been able to execute those larger deals, like Columbia, and get real good efficiencies."

Yesterday Ameriprise reported its Q3 2018 earnings. On the asset management side, Ameriprise's net revenues slipped two percent year-over-year to $772 million for Q3 2018, expenses dropped one percent to $575 million, and pretax adjusted operating earnings fell three percent to $197 million. AUM rose 0.2 percent year-over-year to $485 billion. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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