Evolution and Investec have agreed terms under which Investec will buy all ordinary share capital of Evolution in a deal worth around £233 million.

Evolution, the UK-based investment and wealth management firm, and Investec, the UK/South Africa-listed bank, have agreed terms under which Investec will buy all the issued ordinary share capital of Evolution in a deal worth £233.2 million (around $372 million).

Evolution shareholders will receive around 53.8 million new Investec shares, said a joint statement from both firms.

The transaction, if it goes through as planned, represents an example of the kind of wealth management consolidation that a number of professionals in the industry have been predicting, as firms deal with rising regulatory costs and pressures on margins. Evolution is the parent firm of Williams de Broë, the UK private client investment managers, with a heritage dating back to 1869 and which has about £6 billion of client assets under management. In early August, Williams de Broë agreed to acquire BNP Paribas Private Investment Management Limited, which as at 30 June 2011 had assets under management of approximately £1.8 billion.

The total price of the Evolution-Investec deal is based on the prevailing mid-market price of an Investec share being 433.5 pence, at the time the Evolution directors agreed in principle to give their recommendation, the firms said.

Under the transaction, Evolution shareholders will receive 0.23124 new Investec shares in exchange for each Evolution share they hold which equates to a value of 100.24 pence per Evolution share. This price gives a premium of about 44.7 per cent to the average closing mid-market price per Evolution share over the three month trading period to 2 August 2011.

Investec said it has obtained letters of intent from Blackrock Investment Managers (UK) Limited and Majedie Asset Management to vote in favour of the transaction.

The statement gave few details as to the longer term results of such a deal, such as the impact on jobs and products.