Quilter Cheviot, the Old Mutual Wealth-owned investment manager with assets under management of over £22 billion, has bought Attivo Group’s discretionary fund management (DFM) arm for £8.5 million. The acquisition brought an extra £300 million worth of assets under the management of Quilter Cheviot.
Financial statements have revealed: “During the period [the six months to June 31] Attivo Investment Limited contributed post-tax profits of £487,970 (2016: £1.3 million) and a profit on disposal of £8.5 million was recognised in the consolidated profit and loss account.”
Old Mutual and Quilter Cheviot were unwilling to comment on the figure.
The CEO of Attivo Group, Stephen Harper, revealed that the transaction was motivated in part by increasing regulatory costs: “We had three regulated businesses in the group, we were doing three lots of regulatory returns, three lots of capital adequacy and of course capital adequacy has changed over the last two years.
“As a growing business our capital adequacies were growing quite significantly. When you put it all together we felt it is what our clients want, it is best for our clients and it differentiates us from the majority of large firms. Further, it reduced our regulatory burden and capital adequacy costs and that was also money we could put to real valuable use to continue growing the business.”
Subsequent to the transaction, Attivo Group’s data in Companies House recorded a significant surge in pre-tax profit: a loss of £160 thousand in the six months to March 2016 was transformed into a pre-tax profit of over £8 million in the same period a year on.
Harper also spoke about Attivo Group’s eagerness to avoid a conflict of interest,
“We feel really strongly that what is important to our clients today us that they are getting genuinely independent advice and while I understand the value of vertical integration I think our clients value independence much more.”
Quilter Cheviot’s CEO, David Loudon, commented on the acquisition, “This development demonstrates our commitment to a proactive growth strategy and is a statement of our confidence in the UK’s economy.”
For more information on the M&A market and specifically selling your business to Old Mutual, contact Gwill Evans – Gwill.Evans@gunnerandco.com.
