The latest mergers, acquisitions and other corporate actions in the wealth management sector.

Stephens, CRUX Asset Management
Stephens, the US privately held financial services firm, has agreed to take a minority stake in the UK’s CRUX Asset Management, an active equity investment management business.

The proposed transaction will result in Stephens holding about 20 per cent of CRUX’s share capital and new ordinary shares will be issued to support the deal. Established in 2014, CRUX has £1.7 billion assets under management.

John Stephens, senior vice president with Stephens’ affiliate Stephens Inc, will join the CRUX board as a non-executive director once the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has cleared the transaction.

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Stephens concentrates on family investments, private equity, asset management investment banking, wealth management, public finance and insurance brokerage. Stephens, which has other locations with a European practice in the UK and Germany, was founded in 1933.

“Over the last five years, we have built a scalable platform at CRUX that has enabled us to expand our investment offering into Asia and the UK with complementary strategies that fit our plans to build a diversified range of active management strategies,” Karen Zachary, CEO at CRUX, said.

In September 2021, CRUX hired Ewan Markson-Brown and Damian Taylor, two Asia equity fund managers, to build out its Asia equity franchise. In March 2022 CRUX formed a strategic partnership with Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privée to advise UBP on its Asia equity funds and mandates. In addition, UBP will provide investors in Asia with exclusive access to CRUX’s alpha-generating equity products.

CRUX was founded in 2014, and its teams focus on Europe, the UK and Asia.