Alliance Trust Savings has moved all Stocktrade customers from Brewin Dolphin to its platform, completing its acquisition of the execution-only business.
The platform’s total assets under administration now stand at £11.5bn across over 100,000 customer accounts.
An addition to ATS’ direct and intermediary channels, Stocktrade will also help expand the platform’s access to a greater market share through partnerships with pension providers, company share schemes and corporate Isas, according to a statement.
ATS chief executive Patrick Mill said: “The acquisition of Stocktrade demonstrates our ambitious growth strategy, substantially increasing our customer numbers, assets under management and adding a strategic partnership capability.
“The final transition went smoothly over the weekend and we are delighted to have completed the acquisition as planned,” he added, stating its strategy remains to grow the business organically, “while remaining open to appropriate acquisition opportunities”.
Last May, ATS bought Brewin Dolphin’s stockbroking business for £14m, pushing customer numbers from 48,000 to 105,000.
An analyst note from JPMorgan at the time said the deal would “transform” the profitability of ATS.
“The acquisition is bound to lead to further debate on whether Alliance Trust should keep its subsidiaries, but we believe that ATS is potentially a very valuable asset that it might be premature to sell,” it read.
peter.walker@ft.com
