Mattioli Woods has acquired a near-majority stake in Amati Global Investors with the option to acquire the entire business after two years.
The 49 per cent stake in the specialist wealth manager will also see three of the senior directors from Mattioli Woods join the board of Amati to provide support on compliance and governance.
Mattioli Woods will have the option to acquire the remaining 51 per cent of Amati for a two year period beginning in February 2019.
If the company were to choose not to buy the remainder of the wealth manager, then Amati would have the option to buy back the initial 49 per cent.
There will be no change to the management of Amati funds and portfolios, which will continue to be run by Paul Jourdan, Douglas Lawson, and David Stevenson.
A “sound commercial and operational rationale” and “highly complimentary” business culture motivated the deal, along with ambitions to grow the business and take Amati products to a wider audience.
Mattioli Woods chief executive officer Ian Mattioli called Amati a “great fit culturally and strategically.
“There are few specialist UK fund managers with such a long and stable heritage, utilising the combined experience of an investment team with over 50 years' knowledge of UK smaller companies.
"The team’s performance has been recognised in a number of awards and ratings. I believe this investment will significantly enhance the group’s fund management expertise.”
The news of the acquisition came as Mattioli Woods announced a 22.1 per cent jump in both revenue and interim dividend in its interim results, to £24.3m and 4.7p respectively.
Total client assets rose by 14.4 per cent since May last year to £7.6bn.
Custodian Reit, the UK real estate investment trust managed by subsidiary Custodian Capital, raised a further £44.6m of new money during the period from May.
The Mattioli Woods Structured Products fund also raised over £60m since its launch in November last year.
Mattioli Woods also announced the appointment of Simon Gibson as chief investment officer and Gareth Green as head of risk management.
julia.faurschou@ft.com
