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Standard Life acquires Newton Private Clients in £83.5m deal

by Michelle Abrego on Feb 27, 2013 at 10:37

Standard Life Wealth has acquired Newton Private Clients for up to £83.5 million.

The deal will triple Standard Life Wealth's assets under management. Newton's wealth arm has around £3.6 billion of assets.

The £83.5 million will be contingent on the value of assets under management transferred to and retained by Standard Life Wealth.

Newton's Private Client business has approximately 3,000 UK and international clients and a number of charity clients.

All 79 Newton Private Clients staff will transfer to Standard Life.

Standard Life said that Newton’s long-only investment proposition would broaden Standard Life Wealth’s investment capability.

Richard Charnock, Standard Life Wealth chief executive said: ‘This acquisition complements Standard Life Wealth’s impressive growth to date and provides us with a unique opportunity to accelerate our onshore and offshore strategy.

‘We are bringing together additional skills, clients and assets to create a discretionary wealth manager of significant scale and market presence.’

Caroline Tye, head of private clients at Newton, said: ‘We are delighted to be joining such a highly regarded discretionary investment management business and are excited by the opportunities that it presents both for our clients and for the team.

The deal is expected to complete within seven months.

Earlier this month, the Daily Telegraph reported that other bidders for Newton were understood to have included Rathbones and Quilter.

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9 comments so far. Why not have your say?

3000 private clients, now thats certainly a coup pulled off by SLAC !!

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You're right Stephen. Mind you, they might have saved themselves £83 million by simply writing to Newton clients and offering them a chance of an i-pad if they move to Standard Life.

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@Christopher P.

Nice one Centurion!

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Standard have always maintained they are not growing their direct sales force - Standard you can now uncross your fingers !!!

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So, another part of SL sponsorers of the Ryder Cup. So how many clients do we need to recommend to Newton PC to get tickets in 2014, or even in the USA in 2016?

Mind you, to be at an event full of financial advisers, will it be as enjoyable?

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Would be interesting to know NPC's margins from their £3.6 bn AUM retained from the value chain and work backwards to the £83m valuation.

Anyone?

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Like it Chris ;-))

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Impressed that as a Private Newton client I have already been 'phoned to advise me of the SL acquisition. Hope that sort of personal attention will continue in the future ?

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Nigel Bracken

Feb 27, 2013 at 18:03

@ Dante - yes if my calculator has enough digits £83.5m is only @ 2.3% of AUM.

Standard Life never tires of telling me how valuable my book would be if it was on their platform - making the 3-4x trail that most IFA's imagine more likely - perhaps it's the same for DFM's. Most seem to want to charge @ 0.75-1% p.a. -if NPC did then they got 2-3 times their "trail" - although perhaps big clients with £1.2m average assets would pay a little less in fees - especially for unsexy long only stuff.

Wonder what you can pick up zombie life insurers for at present?

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