Titan Wealth Holdings has bought Cardale Asset Management, a Harrogate-based independent investment management business, for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition brings £1.5bn of assets under management and 3,500 clients to Titan Wealth, enlarging the firm’s assets under management to £5.2bn.
Cardale will retain its existing model, leadership and brand, and will operate under the Titan Wealth Holdings group.
Andrew Fearon, joint chief executive officer of Titan Wealth, said Cardale will act as Titan’s northern hub, giving it a “significant presence” in the north of England.
He said: “Cardale will form a key part of Titan’s central investment proposition and enhance the group’s distribution capabilities.
Andy Tod, chief executive of Cardale, said now is the "right time" to find a partner with the expertise and reach that will take the firm to the "next level".
Tod said: "In Titan Wealth we have found a highly complementary partnership with strong cultural alignment that will drive growth in our client base and distribution capabilities, allowing us to continue to invest in our operations and client service."
Fearon added that Titan Wealth is in active conversations with five firms around acquisitions, and will help it on its target to reach between £50bn and £70bn of assets under management and administration within three years.
He said Titan sees opportunity in the DFM consolidation space, as opposed to the IFA consolidation sector which he said is a “crowded market”.
“There’s 700-800 DFMs in the UK and a lot of them are either subscale or they’re under margin pressure,” he told FTAdviser.
“[Cardale is] a more traditional DFM that runs a slick service for their clients.”
There is a “wall” of capital ready to deploy into investment services, he added, outside of IFAs, who are leaving traditional big banks.
“Because you’ve also got margin pressures, you’ve got businesses that are struggling to grow, and so there’s a strong case to start consolidating those businesses.”
Titan Wealth launched in June 2021 with the acquisition of investment and wealth management businesses GPP and Tavistock Wealth.
A month later the company then bought Tavistock’s DFM, renaming it Titan Asset Management after its £40mn sale completed.
sally.hickey@ft.com
