Caledonia has agreed to pay up to £77m in cash for 94% of Seven IM Holdings, subject to FCA approval.
Seven’s management team will kick-in £5m for the remaining equity, with the balance of the purchase costs coming from £25m of bank debt. The planned transaction values the business at £100m.
A deal has been in the works for some time after Zurich and Aegon ordered a valuation of the business.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Caledonia in the next phase of Seven IM’s development,” said Sheridan. “Their investment philosophy and culture, as well as their attitude to longer term investment, are perfectly aligned with our own. This will enable us to continue our focus on, and development of, “doing the right thing” in our business, for not just our partners and staff, but of course most importantly our clients.”
“Caledonia has a long history of investing in successful fund management businesses,” said Duncan Johnson, the trust’s head of unquoted investments. “We look forward to supporting Tom Sheridan and his team in building on Seven IM’s impressive growth record and strong investment performance to service an expanding UK wealth management market where there is a growing demand for multi-asset and multi-manager funds.”
As of 30 April Seven IM had assets under management of approximately £9.5bn.
