The sale of Société Générale's UK asset management business to the hedge fund group GLG Partners this morning looks like quite a canny deal from the buyer's perspective. It is also emblematic of the type of industry consolidation we can expect - not a large-scale wave of megadeals between forced sellers and bargain-hunting buyers, but a flurry of niche deals aimed at product diversity and access to distribution networks.

The deal marks an anti-climax to Société Générale's high hopes of 1998, when Keith Percy, Nicola Horlick and John Richards pledged that they would take on the giants of the UK asset management industry.