Following today's announcement that Liontrust will acquire the UK investment business of Architas from AXA S.A, we have retained our Recommended rating on the Architas Multi-Asset (MA) Active range of funds.

Whilst we acknowledge the corporate change, we believe that, in the near term, there will be little meaningful impact on the UK investment business and in particular the Multi-Asset Active fund range. At this time there are no planned changes to either the investment philosophy or the way the funds are managed. The lead manager of the range, Nathan Sweeney, along with other members of the UK investment business will move to Liontrust as part of this deal. The completion of the deal remains subject to regulatory and shareholder approval and is expected before the end of the year. We will continue to monitor developments and provide further updates in due course.