BlueBay founders net £82m from sale

Royal Bank of Canada has agreed to buy the London-based fund manager BlueBay Asset Management for £963m in a push to cement its position as leading global wealth manager.

Canada's biggest bank is offering 485p for each BlueBay share, 29 per cent above the closing price on Friday of 375.7p.

The deal will net the fixed-income fund manager's founders – its chief executive, Hugh Willis, and Mark Poole, its chief investment officer – £81.9m each, as they still own 17 per cent of the firm.

They have agreed to reinvest a quarter of this into funds managed by BlueBay and to forfeit 40 per cent of this if they leave within the next three years.