MutualFundWire.com: Transamerica Brings Four Mandates In-House

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Transamerica Brings Four Mandates In-House

Transamerica [profile] is about to hand four mutual fund mandates to one of its siblings.

According to two filings submitted on Friday [#1 and #2], the boards of the four funds in question have approved firing two subadvisors and hiring Aegon USA Investment Management for the mandates. (Transamerica is an Aegon subsidiary.) BlackRock [profile] would lose three mandates, and Eaton Vance [profile] would lose one. All four fund subadvisor changes are subject to shareholder approval.

MFWire could not immediately reach a spokesperson for BlackRock for comment on the move, and an Eaton Vance spokeswoman was not immediately able to comment.

In an emailed statement to MFWire, Transamerica Capital CEO Dave Paulsen commented on the proposed changes:

As part of our commitment to investors, we continuously review our sub-advisory relationships to make sure the balance of cost, objectives and investment outcomes meets and exceeds the expectations of our investors. We believe Aegon USA Investment Management, LLC has proven their ability to deliver on these attributes and we are confident in entrusting them with this business.

The affected funds are:

the four-star, $438.2-million Transamerica Multi-Managed Balanced Fund, where Aegon would replace BlackRock (J.P. Morgan also subadvises);
the four-star, $50.7-million Transamerica Partners Balanced Portfolio, where Aegon would replace BlackRock (again, J.P. Morgan also subadvises);
the three-star, $313.0-million Transamerica Partners Core Bond Portfolio, where Aegon would replace BlackRock; and
the four-star, $121.6-million Transamerica Partners High Yield Bond Portfolio, where Aegon would replace Eaton Vance.