Nationwide to Sell Gartmore’s Int’l. Operations to Hellman & Friedman

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Hellman & Friedman Advisors LLC, a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm, have entered into a definitive agreement for Nationwide’s sale of Gartmore Investment Management plc (GIM), the London-based arm of Gartmore Group, to Hellman & Friedman.

The transfer is conditioned on, the receipt of the appropriate U.K. and other regulatory approvals, and is expected to close during the third quarter of 2006. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Nationwide will retain Gartmore’s U.S. investment operations, which does business as Gartmore Global Investments, Inc. (GGI),” said the announcement. “During a transition period, Nationwide will be re-branding its U.S. Gartmore-branded funds. The U.S. investment operations are headquartered in the metropolitan Philadelphia area and employ approximately 275 associates in offices across the United States. Nationwide will maintain GGI’s strong U.S. investment platform, which manages more than $46 billion in assets, including mutual funds, separate accounts, collective investment funds and other pooled investment vehicles.”

“The Gartmore U.K. transaction finally allows us to focus on the more rapidly growing U.S.-based consumer and small-business markets where our competitive position is strong,” stated Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen. “Gartmore’s significant institutional pension and hedge fund business does not benefit from or enhance this strategy. Rather, mutual funds represent a growing share of U.S. consumers’ financial assets and are an area in which we want to expand. We also plan to fully harness our distribution strength, which includes a Nationwide Financial sales force of more than 1,000 affiliated registered representatives and 200 wholesalers who have strong relationships with approximately 55,000 registered representatives in banks, independent broker/dealer firms, regional brokerages and national wirehouses.”