InvestmentsAug 31 2018

Rathbones completes £104m acquisition of investment house

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Rathbones completes £104m acquisition of investment house

Rathbones has completed the acquisition of Speirs and Jeffrey, the Scottish investment management business it agreed to buy in June.

The £104m acquisition cost was met via a cash consideration of £79m, with the remaining £25m coming via newly issued Rathbones shares. The shares cannot be sold for three years.

All Speirs and Jeffrey employees will transfer to Rathbones, with Russell Critchton, previously chief executive of Speirs and Jeffrey, becoming head of Rathbones' Scottish office.

The staff who are shareholders must remain with the business for three years to be permitted to sell the shares.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have approved the transaction.

The deal will boost Rathbones Assets Under Management (AUM) by about 20 per cent.

At the time of the announcement of the acquisition, Philip Howell, chief executive of Rathbones, said: "Speirs & Jeffrey represents an ideal strategic, professional and geographic fit with Rathbones and we look forward to working together both to develop our business in Scotland and deliver compelling returns for our shareholders.

"Key to our combined future success will be the principle of putting clients at the forefront of what we do, and we will remain committed to this as we welcome Speirs & Jeffrey into the group."

david.thorpe@ft.com