MMC selling Putnam

Power Financial, the owner of the biggest mutual fund company in Canada, agreed yesterday to buy Putnam Investments, based in Boston, from Marsh & McLennan for $3.9 billion in cash. Power Financial is buying Putnam, which managed $192 billion as of December 31, through its Great-West Lifeco insurance unit. Marsh, which has owned Putnam since 1970, put the company up for sale in September after assets fell 60% in five years because of below- average returns and fallout from a fund-trading scandal.