The enlarged firm now runs or advises on about $60 billion in combined assets. The M&A deal highlights the kind of corporate activity that has affected parts of the wealth management space in the past decade.

Tiedemann Group, the US-based multi-family office, has wrapped up its acquisition – first announced in 2021 – of London’s Alvarium Investments, having finally won shareholder approval last November.

The combined company now operates as Alvarium Tiedemann Holdings and its Class A common shares and warrants began trading on NASDAQ yesterday.

The M&A deal, one of the largest in the MFO space in recent years, is an example of the kind of consolidation that has affected much of the world’s wealth sector in the past decade. 

“We’ve established a truly distinctive, global wealth and asset management firm with a breadth of international capabilities and access to an entrepreneurial network. Today marks our next chapter,” Michael Tiedemann, chief executive of Alvarium Tiedemann, said. “In 2023, we plan to capitalise on the opportunity to provide our clients and partners with best-in-class financial advisory services, access to alternative investment opportunities and a leading impact investing offering.”

In an interview published October 2021, Michael Tiedemann (pictured) defended the move to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), called Cartesian Growth (see an article here about the SPAC phenomenon). Becoming a publicly traded company helped to guarantee the MFO’s promise to clients of having “permanent” ownership, Tiedemann stated at the time. That would be difficult to achieve by remaining private, he maintained, and impossible if the firm sold shares to a private equity company.

“We are pleased to complete the business combination and are excited to introduce Alvarium Tiedemann’s differentiated platform and offering to the public markets,” Peter Yu, chairman and chief executive of Cartesian, said. “AlTi serves a large and growing market and has the global ecosystem to provide truly customised independent advisory services and compelling investment opportunities aligned with changing client needs.”

The enlarged firm now runs or advises on about $60 billion in combined assets.

Tiedemann is no stranger to M&A transactions, having bought two major RIAs in the past decade, Presidio Capital Advisors in San Francisco and Threshold Group in Seattle. Tiedemann Advisor’s international arm Tiedemann Constantia also acquired London-based multi-family office Holbein Partners.

Such a deal involving two MFOs is one of the largest combinations of such organisations in many years. Unlike registered investment advisors, where M&A has been busy, the market for MFO mergers and acquisitions has been relatively quiet.