London-based wealth manager in £3.5m bolt-on

Wealth manager and impact investing specialist Truestone Asset Management has acquired London-based discretionary manager and employee benefits specialist Argent Personal Financial Managers in a deal with £3.5m, FTAdviser can reveal.

Truestone’s acquisition of Argent, which will be paid for through a mixture of cash and equity over two years, brings to an end a sales process for the latter that has lasted since it was put on the block in February of this year.

Truestone, which is also based in London, will see its funds under management boosted to around £360m as a result of the deal.

Last year (2 June), Truestone sold its employee benefits business to Helm Godfrey for £3.2m, moving its team to the Helm Godfrey headquarters in London.

Shortly following that sale, the firm said it would increase its focus on high net-worth clients while keeping an eye out for potential acquisitions. It also outlined plans to expand its presence in the social investment and private client wealth management sectors.

Argent Personal Financial Managers was formed in 2007 as a wealth manager and employee benefits consultant after it demerged from Argent Brokers Ltd, which was itself formed in 1996 from the merger of Argent Insurance Services Ltd and MW Insurance Brokers Ltd.

The firm manages client investments on a discretionary basis and its flagship fully managed service held over £140m of client monies as at March 2012.

Neil Sandy, chief operating officer at Truestone, said: “With RDR just around the corner and the costs and complexities of running a successful advisory firm increasing, combining our back-office teams and investment management research and advisory expertise is an exciting development.”