St James’s Place has confirmed it will commit £800m of client assets to the Janus Henderson emerging markets fund, making it the first big investor to publicly back the merged company.
Earlier this month, Henderson Global Investors announced it was merging with Janus Capital to create a new combined business, valued at more than $6bn (£4.7bn).
The move will bring together operations in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia.
SJP said it planned to pull out of the fund managed by Stewart Investors' Jonathan Asante, back in July, and would instead invest £800m in the Global Emerging Markets fund, run by Henderson fund manager Glen Finegan.
The FTSE 100 wealth manager decided to look for a different emerging markets manager after Mr Asante deciding to focus on global equities.
SJP said it had a conversation with Henderson on the day the deal was announced about how the combined entity would be structured, and was confident the asset manager would be able to flourish once the merger is complete.
Changes to SJP's existing range of funds and fund managers are set to take effect in the final quarter of this year.
The day after the deal was announced, Andrew Formica, the chief executive of Henderson, admitted the deal was largely prompted by “structural trends”, such as fee transparency, increasing costs, and the growth of passive funds.
