Security Benefit Group of Topeka to buy Rydex Investments
By MARK DAVIS
The Kansas City Star
Topeka-based Security Benefit Group has agreed to buy Maryland-based Rydex Investments, which would create a $35 billion asset management company.
Rydex, with 263 employees, manages about $15 billion through more than 80 mutual funds and exchange-traded funds and 55 institutional products.
Security Benefit, with 825 employees in five states, manages $20 billion in mutual funds, insurance trusts, annuities and other accounts. It previously was in the life insurance business but now focuses on wealth accumulation and management services, including administration of 403(b) and other qualified retirement plans.
The companies did not disclose the terms of the merger, which they announced Thursday and expect to complete in the fourth quarter.
Security Benefits’ variable annuity program already offers Rydex funds to investors, and the two firms have worked together for seven years. The merger will allow Security to market Rydex products more broadly.
Each company markets its products through networks of independent brokers, which combined included 40,000 individual brokers.
Kris Robbins, Security Benefit chief executive officer, called the merger strategic, combining two similarly suited companies.
After the merger, Rydex will continue to operate under its brand as a separate line of business, the companies said. Rydex’s current management also will remain in place.
“The business model of both companies works well, so why change?” Robbins said.
Rydex began to look for a buyer last winter with advice from Goldman Sachs, said Carl Verboncoeur, its chief executive officer. The company is owned by a trust controlled by the family of its late founder, Skip Viragh.
Robbins, asked whether Security Benefit could fund the purchase, said the company would tap the debt market.
