Washington DC-headquartered Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire UK-based firm Harwood Wealth Management.
Under the terms of the deal, Harwood shareholders will be entitled to receive 145p in cash for each share, which equates to a cash offer of around £90.7m ($117.7m, €106.1m).
It will be presented to Harwood shareholders, who will have to agree to the deal.
In the announcement on 23 December 2019, Harwood directors said they intended to unanimously recommend the remaining Harwood shareholders vote in favour of the acquisition.
Harwood was created by the merger of Compass Wealth Management and Wellian Investment Solutions. The company, which has around £5bn of assets under management, is listed on the Alternative Investment Market.
Hurst Point
The acquisition will be made via Carlyle’s indirectly-owned company Hurst Point Topco.
The Jersey-registered business was formed for the purposes of the deal.
Hurst Point is an investment advisory firm set up by Ian Gladman, former group strategy director of Old Mutual, as well as several other unnamed ex-employees of the firm.
It agreed a joint strategy to work with private equity group Carlyle in early 2019 to “investigate opportunities in the UK wealth management sector”, and it considers Harwood an “attractive initial investment”.
It is intended that Gladman will become executive chairman of Hurst Point.
Next phase of development
Gladman said: “We greatly admire what the founding shareholders and management team at Harwood have achieved since setting up the business over 18 years ago and since its initial public offering.
“Carlyle and Hurst Point believe the next phase of Harwood’s development would be best conducted in the private domain and intend to provide the capital backing, investment, strategic support and global expertise to facilitate future growth.
Peter Mann, non-executive chairman of Harwood, said: “Looking ahead, the board believes that Carlyle and Hurst Point will be excellent partners to Harwood, providing the capital backing, strategic support and additional resources and investment needed for the business to continue to grow.
“We therefore believe the acquisition is in the best interests of all our stakeholders.
“The Harwood board therefore unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions relating to the acquisition.”
