UK's European Wealth Acquires Book Of Business

Tom Burroughes

7 October 2016

London-listed has agreed to buy a book of business held by UK-based Towry Asset Management for a maximum consideration of £1.0 million ($1.245 million), adding to a number of recent acquisitions.

The assets involved in the acquisition were worth around £120 million at the end of March this year. In the full year to 31 March, the assets generated a profit of around £200,000.

In addition to the purchase price, European Wealth has agreed to pay TAM an additional £200,000 for the benefit of a loan that TAM owes to a consultant transferring to the company. That loan will be set off against any bonus due to the consultant for a 12-month period ending on 30 September 2017.

Clients holding the transferring assets are mainly based in South Africa and the UK; the money will be run from London.

European Wealth said it aims to build upon the client base of the transferring assets to extend its international reach, a process that began in November 2014 with the acquisition of P&C Global Wealth Managers in Switzerland.

The firm said that to satisfy the loan sum, it plans to raise up to £300,000 through a direct share subscription by investors to the company for up to 600,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 50 pence per ordinary share.

In September, European Wealth acquired Gibraltar-based CIMCO Partners Management (CPML) for £750,000. CPML has around $22 million of funds under management and manages the G20 Absolute Return fund, which will become European Wealth's third in-house fund. As part of the deal, CPML’s vendor, Michael Mechas, will join European Wealth, continuing in his position as lead investment director of the fund. Mechas will join European Wealth’s investment committee and help identify international acquisitions. He will report to the recently appointed group chief executive, John Morton, as head of international corporate development for Europe and the Americas.