Acquisition

Thursday 14th November 2013

Charles Stanley Group PLC acquisition of Evercore Pan Asset Capital Management Limited

Charles Stanley Group PLC ('Charles Stanley') announces that it has exchanged contracts to acquire the entire issued share capital of Evercore Pan Asset Capital Management Limited ('Pan Asset') for an undisclosed initial cash consideration with further considerations over the next 12 and 18 months subject to Pan Asset's overall performance.

The acquisition is conditional upon change of control permission being granted by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About Pan AssetPan Asset offers asset allocation advice across an extensive range of global asset classes and specialises in the use of passive (index tracking) investments. Founded in 2007, its clients include pension funds, charities, universities and family wealth. Pan Asset had Assets under Management of £593m as at 31st October 2013; including directly managed client portfolios, model portfolios on wrap platforms and two open ended UCIT investment funds.

About the acquisitionCharles Stanley provides a vertically integrated range of investment management services to retail investors, both direct and via the intermediated market-place. It provides discretionary, advisory and execution-only services through its national network of 32 offices plus a range of actively managed model portfolios available on a variety of platforms and through Charles Stanley Direct, its online offering.

Speaking about the acquisition, Mike Lilwall, Director of Charles Stanley Group PLC commented: "The acquisition of Pan Asset will complement the company's existing distribution channels by broadening Charles Stanley's expertise and product offering into the area of passives and in particular we foresee opportunities to enhance our increasing offering to the Financial Adviser market-place. Further opportunities include the provision of cost effective pension products by combining the Pan Asset active management process with Charles Stanley and Charles Stanley Direct's services. This includes a full range of SIPP and ISA wrappers together with traditional investment accounts. We also anticipate that Pan Asset's strong asset allocation skills will further improve our asset allocation models and we welcome the team to Charles Stanley."

Pan Asset will be integrated within Charles Stanley's funds division where it is anticipated a degree of cost saving will be achieved by the elimination of duplicated systems costs and utilising Charles Stanley's sales and distribution network. Pan Asset has been operating near break-even and these actions are expected to make Pan Asset immediately profitable and leverage its considerable operational gearing.

Ends

For further information, please contact:

Mike Lilwall, Director

Phone: 020 7149 6244

Email: [email protected]

Magnus Wheatley, Head of Press & Public Relations

Phone: 020 7149 6273

Email: [email protected] 

Notes to editors:

Charles Stanley is one of the UK's leading independently owned, full service stockbroking, corporate finance and institutional advisory groups.

Charles Stanley is one of the oldest firms on the London Stock Exchange. Its origins lie in a banking partnership established in Sheffield in January 1792. 

Charles Stanley currently has £18.5 billion of client funds under management and administration (at 30 September 2013) through its regional network of 32 offices across England and Scotland.

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Evercore Pan Asset Capital Management Limited

Evercore Pan Asset was founded in 2007 by John Redwood and Christopher Aldous with the aim of providing a new and different approach to investment management, offering specialist asset allocation advice across an extensive range of global asset classes and the use of passive (index-tracking) investments. The company's investment methodology can be applied to all types of funds whether charitable endowments, institutional funds, pensions, or family wealth. The founders have extensive investment knowledge gained in a variety of market conditions and have over 50 years aggregate experience in the investment industry.

Founders

John Redwood held senior investment roles at Robert Fleming and NM Rothschild in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then he has been a Pension Trustee, Investment Committee member for an Oxford College, Chairman of an investment company and a non-executive Director of a hedge fund and an Investment Trust. An early advocate of tracker funds, he has written extensively on economics and investment.

Christopher Aldous has been involved in wealth management since joining Cazenove in 1981. He has since been a Director of Barclays de Zoete Wedd, an Executive Director of UBS and a Managing Director of Robertson Stephens, the US technology investment bank. He co-founded Absolute Fund Management in 2001, where he managed a fund of hedge funds and was Chief Executive Officer until 2007.