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UK Fund Manager To Sell Guernsey And South African Subsidiaries

Guernsey-based Midas Capital International will be sold to Miton Optimal International and South African subsidiary Midas Capital Asset Management will be sold to a consortium led by its chief executive Scott Campbell, according to media reports. The total consideration is said to be £570,000 (about $870,000).
Midas said the subsidiaries, with combined assets under management of £62 million, had generated a pre-tax loss of £292,000 during 2009.
Midas Capital chairman and chief executive Colin Rutherford said: "The sale of Midas Capital International and Midas Capital Asset Management to Miton Optimal completes the planned initial moves to refocus the group activities back to its core UK business."
The ultimate parent MDS was founded in 2001 by two Exeter based legal firms and a team of financial service industry professionals. Originally conceived as a private client investment manager, trading as iimia, it soon expanded both geographically and in the range and scale of activities offered.
In August 2004 iimia merged with Exeter Investment Group, under a new parent company called iimia Investment Group and was AIM-listed. September 2005 saw the acquisition of Intelli Corporate Finance although this was subsequently sold in September 2009. In July 2006 the group sold its funds administration business, Sinclair Henderson, to Capita Group.
In October 2007 it completed the merger with the Reading and Cape Town based fund manager, MitonOptimal Group and the parent name changed to iimia MitonOptimal plc. In March 2008 it merged with Midas Capital Partners, a Liverpool-based fund management company and the group name changed to Midas Capital.
In January 2010 the group sold its iimia wealth management division in order to concentrate on its fund management brands and activities.
The group announced a pre-tax loss of £2.3 million in its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2009, compared with a £56.7 million loss in 2008.