A majority of Nucleus shareholders have accepted James Hay’s cash offer for the business.
The group announced this morning (May 5) that 92 per cent of Nucleus’s shareholders voted for the offer of £1.88 a share.
The offer represented a premium of 42 per cent on Nucleus’s share price on December 1, the last day prior to the offer period.
The cash offer, £144.6m in total, will create an entity with a combined £45bn in assets.
Currently advice network Sanlam owns around 52 per cent of the adviser platform, and had said it was supportive of a potential sale.
Richard Rowney, chief executive of James Hay, said: “I’m very pleased that shareholders have overwhelmingly accepted our offer. Shareholder approval is a key milestone in the journey to bring together the respective expertise of Nucleus and James Hay.
"We are excited by the prospect of working with the Nucleus team as we seek to create a leading independent adviser platform with circa £45bn of assets under administration, and the scale to invest in the technology, products and service for the benefit of advisers and their clients.”
The transaction is still subject to regulatory approval but is expected to complete in the second half of the year. There will be no immediate change for the advisers and their clients on either platform.
At the end of March James Hay switched its offer to a takeover offer which directly targeted shareholders.
According to the James Hay, the tactic would offer “greater certainty of execution” as it would require a lower level of approval to push the deal through.
Under the original strategy, James Hay had to achieve approval from at least 75 per cent of Nucleus shareholders. This new strategy means the firm only has to gain approval from 50 per cent of all shareholders.
sally.hickey@ft.com
