Two more European asset managers have been bought by international groups with LGT's asset management division taken over by US group AMVESCAP and Henderson Investors bought by Australian group AMP.

The purchase of LGT brings it into a group comprising Invesco and AIM, the US mutual fund manager, with combined assets under management approaching $250bn.

The businesses are currently working on their integration while awaiting regulatory approvals. Hugh Ward CEO at Invesco in London says: The fit is a very natural. LGT is very strong in some markets where we are not so strong such as Germany, while we are very strong in France for example. In the UK their retail and institutional businesses fit very well with our own and will bolster a lot of our activities."

The AMP takeover of Hendersons will bring about the merger of AMP Asset Management (AMPAM), the asset management subsidiary in the UK, which specialises in fixed interest securities, and Hendersons. This group, with a strong presence in the UK market, will have $65.2bn of funds under management. The AMP group as a whole will have $102.7bn worth of assets under management.

The merged businesses, which will trade under the Henderson name, will be headed by Henderson's Dugald Eadie although Tony Watson will remain as AMPAM's managing director "to ensure an orderly transition".

AMP Asset Management had just announced that it had won three new mandates, two for pension funds and one for an insurance company having won 10 new accounts in total last year.

According to the Mercer European Pension Fund Managers Guide 1998, as of 30 June last year, INVESCO had mandates from 42 European pension funds (34 for UK funds) with assets of $3.9bn. LGT Asset Management in London had 17 mandates (11 for UK funds) with assets of $2.5bn. LGT in Frankfurt had mandates from 20 pension funds (18 for German funds) with assets of $990m.

AMP was managing for 15 pension funds (13 for UK funds and 2 for Dutch funds) with assets of $4.4bn, while Henderson Investors was managing for 46 funds, (45 for UK funds) with assets of $4bn."