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FNZ Acquires JHC Wealth Management Platform

Jackie Bennion Deputy Editor London 19 July 2019

FNZ Acquires JHC Wealth Management Platform

A commingling of two prominent wealthtech providers consolidates the UK market.

In a move that will noticeably consolidate the UK market, global fintech specialist FNZ Group has acquired wealth management technology provider JHC to form one of the top broking platforms in the UK.

London-based JHC’s platform technology underpins a number of prominent asset managers, including AJ Bell, Brooks Macdonald, Charles Stanley, LGT Vestra and Quilter. More specifically, the firm’s Figaro, Neon, and Xenon software services are widely used by financial advisors for managing portfolios and risk analysis down to meeting ever changing compliance needs.

The acquisition, announced yesterday, comes at a time when advisors are constantly weighing up how technology can give them an operating edge, cut costs, and offer richer client experiences as fees are persistently being compressed.

Scale and consolidation among notable UK B2B providers is an attractive proposition. Edinburgh-based FNZ, which was bought by a private equity partnership for £1.7 billion (£2.13 billion) last year, said that the JHC purchase should provide the scale needed to stay competitive in the fintech world, “particularly in wealth management where regulatory compliance and cyber security are of utmost importance.”

JHC is no newcomer to the red-hot wealthtech space. The founder and employee owned firm has been in independent hands since launching in 1988, and has built a base of more than 500,000 UK users, managing around £160 billion in assets across the platforms powered by its software.

The company will still be held, operated and managed as a separate entity, with additional investment channelled specifically into JHC’s core products, WealthBriefing was told.

On the face of it, the merger will add considerable firepower in scale and assets, bringing together JHC’s 240 staff at offices in London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Dubai, with FNZ's 1,600 staff worldwide. As the larger suitor, FNZ manages around £380 billion in assets for approximately seven million customers, mainly through partnerships with large banks, insurers and asset managers, including Standard Aberdeen, Barclays, Lloyds, Vanguard, Quilter, Santander, Aviva and UBS.

Adrian Durham, chief executive of FNZ, said: “JHC has a market leading and well-established technology platform in the UK, combined with new state-of-the-art digital solutions.

“We see a great opportunity to not only consolidate our combined position in the UK market, but to take JHC technology propositions into new strategic territories – such as APAC and continental Europe – and into new product areas.”

John Blackman, chief executive at JHC, said the merger is “the perfect way for us to grow our business. FNZ is committed to investing in Figaro, Neon and Xenon and supporting our plans for the future.”

The announcement comes in the same week that FNZ completed its acquisition of German-based investment platform Ebase in what may become a pattern of hoovering up firms which fit well with its global transaction and custody services business. The deal for the Munich-based company, worth €151 million (£136 million), was struck last year with German bank Comdirect.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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