The Thistle Initiatives Group has acquired Judicial Assess Management Limited for an undisclosed sum as part of its expansion into the investment management sector.
This addition to the Thistle will allow it to expand its appointed representative services to firms wanting to add discretionary investment management who either do not have the capital to start up or the relevant experience.
Speaking to FTAdviser, James Dingwall, chief executive of the Thistle Initiatives Group, said in the first year, the group has targeted £30m to £50m of assets under management and has “invested heavily in infrastructure and resource”.
This will make Thistle one of only a few compliance consultancy firms to offer this service, Mr Dingwall added.
He said: “We have identified a niche opportunity in the market as firms who want to offer investment management services to its clients are unable to obtain authorisation by the FCA as quite often the applicant firms do not have anyone to assess them as competent.
“Our offering will allow firms to sit under an umbrella and go through a full training and competence programme and then obtain direct authorisation once assessed as competent and continue with our supervision once directly authorised.”
