Rydex-SGI merger to create $21 billion firm

Rydex Investments is being merged with Security Global Investors of New York to create a combined investment firm with $21 billion under management. The two money management operations have been divisions of the same parent company since last January when Rydex of Rockville, Md., was acquired by Security Benefit Corp. of Topeka, Kan. The announcement yesterday also named Richard Goldman chief executive of the combined asset management firm, effective immediately. Carl Verboncoeur, was the CEO of Rydex, is an executive adviser at the company. While the asset management division has already undergone some consolidation under the SGI banner, the Rydex brand will continue as a quantitative fund product line geared primarily toward financial intermediaries and individual investors, according to Lori Klash Winkler, a Rydex spokeswoman. Earlier this week, Security Benefit announced that 120 people had been laid off, including 50 from the asset management businesses. “I don’t anticipate any more consolidation,” Mr. Goldman said. He described the Rydex alternative-investment strategies as a being “complimentary in nature to our other product competencies.” SGI, which is responsible for $9 billion of the total assets, has a global-equity-management office in San Francisco, a value-equity and fixed-income management office in Topeka, and a growth management team in Irvington, N.Y. “The integrated firm not only rounds out our products but also provides us with a wider distribution platform,” Mr. Goldman said.