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Permira Completes Bestinvest Acquisition
Private equity house Permira has completed the acquisition of Bestinvest as it looks to bolster its position in the UK wealth management space.
Private equity house Permira has completed the acquisition of
Bestinvest as it looks to bolster its position in the UK wealth
management space.
Permira said the industry remains fragmented with a long tail of
subscale firms that manage under £3billion of client assets.
“Bestinvest is an excellent, award-winning business with a
strong management team whom we are delighted to back,” said
Philip Muelder, partner in the financial services team. “The UK
wealth management industry has strong organic growth
characteristics but it also remains fragmented
which presents consolidation opportunities.”
Permira also bought Deutsche Bank's wealth management arm,
Tilney, last month. Tilney will be merged with Bestinvest to
create a wealth manager with £9 billion ($15 billion) of
assets.
“The recently announced intention to acquire and combine the
regional business of Tilney with Bestinvest will propel the group
to become a truly nationwide standalone wealth manager with £9
billion under management that will service clients across the
wealth spectrum whether they want to make their own investment
decisions, benefit from a trusted adviser or for us to
manage a portfolio for them,” said Peter Hall, chief executive of
Bestinvest.
Bestinvest, which has around £5 billion of funds under
management, was acquired by 3i in August 2007. Earlier this year
Bestinvest was ranked Britain's top investment platform – or
online shop for shares and funds – according to authoritative
research conducted by a specialist consultancy Platforum.
Tilney, founded in 1836 as RJ Tilney & Co, has been largely
loss-making since Deutsche acquired it in October 2006 for £300
million. Due to the problems in the UK property market and the
decline in private client assets, Deutsche is likely to face a
significant write-down on its acquisition.
Since then the asset and wealth management business posted a £9.5
million pre-tax loss in 2012, following a £8.9 million loss in
2011.
