Fisher Investments buys firm, eyes more takeovers

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Fisher Investments, the $45 billion boutique money management based in California, purchased its first U.S. investment management firm as part of a plan to grow assets to $100 billion, an executive said.

The Woodside, California-based firm headed by Forbes magazine columnist Ken Fisher, bought EconoStrat Advisory Corp for an undisclosed sum, Mark Scalzo, head of mergers and acquisitions at Fisher told Reuters on Tuesday.

"Our goal generally for the next few years is to get to $100 billion in assets under management by largely continuing to do what we are doing by servicing high net worth clients but also to assist that growth with our acquisitions strategy," Scalzo said in a telephone interview.

He also said that the firm is working on a number of projects at the moment and that a second deal might be announced before the end of the first quarter.

Fisher's assets have grown 286.5 percent between 2003 and 2007, and the firm now has operations in Canada, Great Britain and Germany where it bought Thomas Gruener Vermoegensmanagement GmbH for an undisclosed price last summer.

The acquisition of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based EconoStrat comes at a time of intense consolidation in the $12.7 trillion mutual fund industry where large and small players are constantly looking to add assets or fill holes in their product line.

Scalzo said he expects Fisher will step up the pace of acquisitions and make between five and 10 a year as more small firms consider how they will face the future.

"This is our first U.S. acquisition, but there is no limit on the number of transactions we can make," Scalzo said.