Rathbones’ chief executive, Paul Stockton, has revealed that the firm has £60m to fund future acquisitions.
Following the acquisition of Saunderson House, Rathbones has been left with a “cushion” of £60m surplus that will be used to fund strategic purchases. The deal has more than tripled the number of advisers at Rathbones, from 25 to 80.
Mr Stockton commented:
“Rathbones is very well known in investment management and has a smaller presence in financial planning. Saunderson House, too, has a very strong presence in financial planning, so it makes sense to combine.
“The other factor is the very strong cultural fit between the two businesses. I want to emphasise this is not a consolidator type deal, this is not driven by cost savings and synergies. Saunderson House is a high quality business.
“We were fortunate that Ipiris, who previously owned it, were looking to sell.”
“Whether a firm is large or small is not the criteria. We are not trying to just grab everything in the market, and it certainly is not about trying to appear big to our clients, we want to be high quality to our clients.
“This Saunderson House deal is very similar to the one we did with Spiers and Jeffrey up in Scotland. We learned from them, and they learned from us.”
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