DeVere chief Green sells remaining STM stake to bolster fintech focus
Nigel Green, founder and chief of deVere Group, has sold his last remaining 2% stake shares in STM, the London-listed cross-border product specialist and QROPS provider.
Green, (pictured above), who is head of one of the world’s largest independent financial services organisations confirmed that he had relinquished the last part of his stake in STM, via a statement earlier today.
He originally acquired a 24% stake in the Gibraltar-based product provider as part of a £1.59m new shares purchase in 2012. In 2015 he relinquished his majority stake, selling more than 6.7 million STM shares, at a time when the share price was rising, the statement said.
With QROPS a major part of STM’s business the UK government’s shock 25% tax charge on transfers to foreign pension schemes, introduced earlier this year, as reported, was expected to hit the company hard, but according to Green and company reports, STM expects a growth in profit compared to 2016.
“STM is going from strength to strength and is continuing to enhance its already robust position within its sector,” said Green. “However, my investment with the company has now come to an end.
‘Short-term’
“My financial interest in STM was always only ever intended to be a short-term one, to provide the required funds for STM to develop and grow in order that clients could benefit from working with a first-class product provider with top level business and customer services practices.
“My investment goals with STM have now been fulfilled.”
STM Group paid a dividend of one pence a share on 28 June, which was double its previous dividend of 0.5p and represented a yield of 2.82%.
Green added that the sale of his last remaining shares in STM has freed-up resources to allow deVere to “concentrate more fully on developing and expanding” its fintech business.
As reported, in April, deVere launched a global e-money app called deVere Vault aimed at internationally mobile expats and individuals. The account allows users to withdraw cash from any cash machine worldwide and provides up to date transaction details via the app.
Green also declared, as reported, that traditional banking was “finished”, in a statement earlier this year.
‘Aggressively develop’
“There has been enormous, international interest in our challenger bank, deVere Vault since its launch in April,” added Green. “We fully expect this momentum of interest in the global e-money app to continue and build.
“As such, we have taken the strategic decision to aggressively develop our burgeoning fintech proposition throughout 2017 and beyond as a major priority.
“We’re looking to go big in the global fintech sector with new services and additional products and, therefore, we are committing considerable extra resources to this part of our organisation.”
More than 40,000 people are expected to have downloaded deVere Vault, deVere’s global e-money app, by the end of 2017, the company said.
“We’re hugely excited to be developing the fintech part of our business – it presents a vast amount of potential for growth – whilst simultaneously actively, ambitiously and strategically expanding deVere’s primary financial advisory business,” added Green.
Click here, to read International Investment’s exclusive interview with Nigel Green, originally published in May, where he discusses his thoughts behind the company’s 2017 dramatic overhaul.
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