The Financial Conduct Authority has approved the sale of wealth manager Charles Stanley to a wholly-owned, UK-based subsidiary of American investment banking and financial services firm Raymond James.
It comes eight days after it was announced the deal would be delayed, as the companies did not expect to receive the required regulatory nods in good time ahead of their original court sanction hearing – which was 20 December.
A prescient move given that a stock exchange announcement from Charles Stanley on Thursday confirmed that the UK watchdog has given its approval on 21 December.
The window in which the Competition and Markets Authority could open an investigation closed on 29 November, indicating it has no objections to the acquisition.
Done deal
As previously reported by International Adviser, the court sanction date was moved to the 19 January 2022.
Having inked the sale agreement on 29 July 2021, completion is now scheduled for 21 January 2022.
It will see Raymond James buy the entire share issue of Charles Stanley for a total consideration of £278.9m ($371m, €328m).
