It maintains an Average Parent rating.
Following an extensive series of mergers and acquisitions, Columbia Threadneedle is a substantial competitor in active management, with more than 650 investment professionals and USD 650 billion in assets under management as of March 2024. Most recently, the firm acquired BMO's European business in late 2021 with plans to strengthen its standing in the UK and European markets, as well as to expand its environmental, social, and governance offerings. It has since launched a handful of ESG-focused strategies, but it has liquidated a few, too.
CEO Ted Truscott and his predecessors have worked to combine the acquisitions under one Columbia Threadneedle umbrella, but these mergers take time to settle, and the firm today has a sprawling lineup of about 100 funds. Columbia Threadneedle has consolidated some redundancies in its lineup in recent years, which should result in a better use of firm resources but has also led to reshuffling of investment professionals and turnover.
Columbia Threadneedle's centralized research and data science teams are well-resourced, but some of the robust tools they have developed to review portfolios and advise managers have yet to translate into meaningful advantages for most of the firm's strategies. The firm boasts some pockets of strength, though.