In a stock exchange announcement on Friday, Quilter said it had sold the business for £583m, comprising £576m cash and a further £7m held by OMGI under regulatory requirements until 2021.
Quilter, formerly Old Mutual Wealth, first announced in September 2017 its intention to separate the multi-asset and single-strategy teams of OMGI into two distinct companies.
The deal to sell the single-strategy business was finalised on 19 December last year and the economic ownership passed to the Buxton (pictured) and the OMGI management team and TA Associates on 1 January this year.
The single-strategy business will continue to trade as Old Mutual Global Investors until a new name is decided. The multi-asset business will remain part of Quilter.
Quilter said it expects to incur aggregate costs of approximately £20m from establishing the standalone OMGI business. The pair will continue to provide commercial services to each other for a period of up to three years.
Next ‘big development’
Buxton said: “We are thrilled to have reached this significant milestone and are incredibly excited to start the next stage of our journey. With the backing of TA Associates, I have every confidence that we will grow substantially from here.
“We are now preparing for the next big development: renaming the business later in the year. We look forward to sharing more information on this in due course.”
Buxton previously told Portfolio Adviser he would not name the business after himself.
Christopher Parkin, managing director at TA Associates, said: “Old Mutual Global Investors’ single-strategy business is among the UK’s fastest growing retail and institutional asset managers, and we believe the firm has tremendous potential to capitalise on strategic opportunities, both in the UK, as well as internationally. We are very excited to begin our partnership with Richard and the OMGI team.”
Earlier this month, OMGI ditched its absolute return fixed income desk, losing five staff and merging two funds due to the changes.
This followed the departure in April of OMGI head of Asian equities Josh Crabb and his investment team.
