Kingswood has agreed to acquire a majority ownership in Manhattan Harbor Capital in a bid to bolster its business in the US.
The UK wealth manager will own 50.1% of the US firm, which will be renamed Kingswood US.
It said the firm will invest up to $8m (£6.1m, €6.8m) in additional capital to carry out “active adviser recruitment and acquisitions”.
Mike Nessim will continue as managing partner of the enlarged Kingswood US business.
On completion, Kingswood US will have about 180 authorised representatives, with key offices in New York, Atlanta and San Diego.
In May 2020, Kingswood acquired Chalice Capital Partners and Chalice Wealth Advisors, as well as announcing its intention to increase its stake in Manhattan Harbor Capital to 20% from 7%, and then fold Chalice into MHC, increasing Kingswood’s interest in MHC to above 50%.
Key foothold
Gary Wilder, group chief executive at Kingswood, said: “We intend to grow this business substantially, leveraging our growing US distribution franchise. I have no doubt the capital we deploy will drive exceptional organic growth across the Kingswood US platform.
“This reflects the desire … to develop a highly accretive global platform providing clients access to investment products and services in major US and UK markets.
“Kingswood’s enhanced investment in Kingswood US will further cement a key, strategic foothold in the largest global wealth and investment management market, differentiate us from our peers and support our aspirations of asset linking and cross-selling services.
“This investment and intention to fund further growth equity is a major statement of intent regarding our US expansion plans and puts us in a strong position to execute our US strategy, supported by the in-place, operating and management platform.”
