** Shares of Insignia Financial IFL.AX rise 1% to A$4.565

** The 178-year-old money manager's stock rose as much as 2% earlier in the day, marking its biggest intraday gain since late-October 2021

** Citi says that there has been strong demand for Separately Managed Accounts, resulting in A$11 bln ($6.95 bln) of Managed Accounts Assets under Management, up 40% over the past year

** Brokerage notes that only A$49 mln ($30.95 mln) of expected ~A$1.4 bln ($884.38 mln) client transition outflows were seen in 2Q, suggesting these net outflows may occur more in 3Q and 4Q

** Despite the impact of Masterkey pricing changes on revenue margin from 2H26 onwards, IFL remains confident of significant cost savings to offset this - Citi

** Co's shares hit a three-year peak on Thursday following a matched A$3.07 bln ($1.94 bln) takeover bid from Bain Capital, igniting a bidding war and overturning a previous rejection due to insufficient offer

** 3 of 7 analysts rate the stock "Buy" and 4 as "Hold"; their median PT is A$4.40 – LSEG data

** Stock up 51.7% last year

($1 = 1.5830 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru)

((Tanishk.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com;))