Two large multi-family offices in the EMEA region, Stonehage and Fleming Family & Partners, have announced they are combining. Executives say more consolidation in the MFO sector is likely.

Two large multi-family offices in the EMEA region, Stonehage and Fleming Family & Partners, are combining to create a business with a client base of over 250 families with a total of $43 billion in assets under management.

FF&P’s shareholders will exchange their shares for a holding in the combined business through a Scheme of Arrangement. The transaction has been approved by both boards and is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

The deal represents another example of consolidation in the multi-family office space, as seen earlier this year with the combination of Sand Aire and Lord North Street, for example. The latest deal did not come out of the blue: there had been some chatter in the markets for weeks of a possible hook-up involving FF&P, as far as this publication understood.

The newly-formed group will be led by Giuseppe Ciucci, current chief executive of Stonehage Group, as CEO. Adam Fleming, chairman of FF&P, and Mark Davies, CEO, will join the SF&P board together with Lord Renwick, presently the FF&P deputy chairman.

The businesses will be combined during next year.

Stonehage has always viewed its business as being a global one and sought to expand and with this Fleming deal, it is ideally placed to pursue its goal of being a global MFO. More such transactions in the industry are likely, Ciucci told this publication in a telephone call after the announcement came out.

"I think the sector will be transformed...we think families are more international and globalised and this era will see more of this [type of transaction]," he said. "We have spent years at Stonehage building scale and we can offer services in different countries. This will give us enormous scale and enable us to fulfill our ambitions," he added.

Adam Fleming, speaking to WealthBriefing in the same call, said he has known the Stonehage group for long enough to respect its achievements and realise that such a business represented a great fit for FF&P. The family office was created by the family after the old Fleming investment bank was sold in 2000 to Chase Manhattan (now JP Morgan). Since then, it has grown to oversee assets of around £4 billion, he said.

"We have been looking for some time to take things to the next level," he said. "This is not a sellout by the Fleming family."

In a statement from the new entity, the SF&P said its business now includes an investment arm with more than $11 billion under management.

SF&P will have combined revenues of approximately $160 million and employ over 500 staff in 14 offices, across 7 countries, the statement said. The group will be majority-owned by management and staff. The Fleming Family Trust Company, as trustees, remain “important shareholders and clients in the combined business”, the statement said.

The Group will employ around 150 staff in London, with a similar number of staff across its Swiss offices in Zurich, Geneva and Neuchatel, it said.