Amvescap boost from Perpetual motion

For a horse-racing enthusiast like Martyn Arbib, the sale of Perpetual, his pride and joy, will prompt mixed feelings.

The thoroughbred fund management house, of which he is chairman and founder, has fetched him some £450 million thanks to a £1.1 billion bid by US group Amvescap.

However, Arbib may stop to wonder what sort of price Perpetual might have commanded had he managed to sell it when it was at the top of its game two years ago.