Beaufort Investment’s parent company has been acquired by a new advice industry consolidator headed up by former Openwork boss Mary-Anne McIntyre.
Socium launched in 2019 with the aim of buying 15 to 20 regional hubs for its advice group so that its clients are always within 50 miles of an office. It is backed by private equity firm Penta Capital, which has previously backed insurance broker network, Global Risk Partners and Esure.
McIntyre (pictured) said the Beaufort Investment arm of Beaufort Group had made the deal particularly attractive.
“The strategy for Socium has been to work with growing firms aiming to double their businesses over the next few years, becoming hubs at the heart of the group. Beaufort Group embodies this approach,” she said. “It also brings with it the added advantage of considerable investment experience and an investment management solution that will be core to our strategic ambitions.”
The £1.1bn Beaufort Investment business will see Socium’s assets under management balloon to £1.6bn. The discretionary fund manager offers 25 portfolios and last year launched its first multi-asset funds.
Socium will have acquired eight regional hubs by the end of 2020 with a further five currently under discussion. It aims to build a group of 300 advisers and currently has group assets under influence of £6.25bn.
McIntyre was at Openwork for five years, including during the retail distribution review, before moving on to Old Mutual Wealth. She has also worked at Fidelity, Perpetual and Deloitte.
At Socium, she is joined by former Openwork finance director Simon Brunt, who is CFO.
The board of Socium includes chairman David Shearer, Martin Baines and Steven Scott as well as Charles Schrager from Penta.
Penta’s website said advice is the least consolidated market of all financial services and is an area where the customer is underserved. It said it would deploy £60m in equity out of total funding of £160m to acquire advice businesses across the UK.
See also: Beaufort nabs from Sanlam to replace outgoing director from Welsh office
