Barry Critchley, Financial Post September 04, 2008

M&A activity in the world of money-management firms continues at a busy pace. Two days back, the latest deal closed when Ridgewood Capital Asset Management acquired the institutional and wealth-management divisions of Mulvihill Capital Management.

There are strong connections between Ridgewood and Mulvihill. Ridgewood is a newly formed corporation controlled by John Simpson and Paul Meyer, who until this week were the senior vice-president and vice-president, of equities, respectively, of Mulvihill.

And Mulvihill will hold a minority interest in Ridgewood. Simpson and Meyer, who spent the past 13 years at Mulvihill, plan to sell part of their equal stake to most of the firm's dozen-plus employees.

About $1.2-billion of assets are involved. "We will outsource IT, accounting, and become a pure investment management firm," Simpson said.

Mulvihill will now continue to focus on its money-management and structured-products business, home to $1.2-billion of assets.