Rydex Financial Services being sold to Ceros Financial

Rydex Financial Services, the brokerage arm of Rydex Investments of Rockville, Md., is being sold to Boston-based CEROS Financial Services Inc., a unit of CEROS Holding AG of Luzern, Switzerland. Officials at Rydex Investments – which now does business as Rydex SGI –confirmed the sale. Mark Hausman, president of Boston-based Ceros Financial Services Inc. declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement. “Hopefully we can talk in the near future,” he said. Financial advisers who keep assets in custody with Rydex Financial Services had mixed reactions. One adviser who asked not to be identified said he was going to leave Rydex Financial Services because of the sale. But Paul Schatz, president and chief investment officer of Heritage Capital LLC in Woodbridge, Conn., which advises on about $130 million in assets, said he plans on staying. Rydex Financial Services has assured him that the deal — which he was told will close over the summer — will leave in place the same team he currently deals with. The sale of Rydex Financial Services, which was launched in 2002, is just the latest change for Rydex Investments. Its new moniker – Rydex SGI – is the result of a merger earlier this year between Rydex Investments and Security Global Investors of New York. The two money management operations have been divisions of the same parent company since January 2008, when Rydex Investments was acquired by Security Benefit Corp. of Topeka, Kan. Correction: In an earlier version of the story it was incorrectly stated that Rydex SGI - and not Rydex Financial Services - was being sold.