You can almost feel the surge of optimism at Russell Investments now it is finally being sold to private equity firm TA Associates for $1.15 billion after a two-year search for buyer. In fact, senior executives are so confident in their collective future that they believe they can double the value of Russell to $2 billion, assuming TA sticks to a plan to float the business in five to seven years.

Maybe they will. But, either way, you can forgive Russell's chief executive Len Brennan for being upbeat, after touting his corporate wares to a rich, and not so rich, variety of bidders for so long.