Old Mutual has agreed to sell its Single Strategy asset management business, headed up by funds industry veteran Richard Buxton, to TA Associates, a private equity firm, for around £600m.
A cash consideration of £570m will be payable on or before completion, with approximately £30m anticipated to be payable thereafter, the company said in an announcement to the stock exchange this morning.
The fund business will be “appropriately capitalised to continue to implement its growth plans during this transitional ownership phase”, the company said in its statement.
In addition to Buxton, the majority of the current Single Strategy management team are expected to remain, the statement added.
In a statement accompanying the announcement, Buxton said he saw the deal as “a good outcome for our customers and our staff”.
“The management team is delighted to be partnering with TA Associates to buy the single strategy business,” he added.
Old Mutual has been in the process of a “managed separation” of its businesses in recent months, which is planned for 2018, and the just-announced sale of the Buxton operation is seen as the latest step along this path.
New multi-asset investment business
As reported, Old Mutual announced in September that it was to create a new multi-asset investment business that it said would sit apart, as a separate investment entity, from its main investment operation, Old Mutual Global Investors.
The Anglo-South African financial services group explained at the time that the new operation was being set up ahead of the managed separation.
In its statement today, Old Mutual said there would be no change to the OMW multi-asset business, which will be rebranded as Quilter Investors in 2018. headed up by chief executive Paul Simpson, the business is seen as a core part of the Old Mutual Wealth strategy.
Old Mutual dates back to 1845, when it began as an insurance company in Cape Town, South Africa.
