Mattioli Woods in £3.3m swoop for equity fund
Leicester-based wealth management firm Mattioli Woods has taken a 49% stake in Amati Global Investors from Amati Global Partners in a deal worth £3.33m.
Mattioli Woods has also entered into an option agreement with the Amati Global Partners to buy the remaining 51% of Amati in the two years commencing February 6, 2019 for a mixture of cash and Mattioli Woods’ ordinary shares. If Mattioli Woods does not exercise the Option to acquire the remaining stake from the Seller, the Seller has an option to buy Mattioli Woods’ shareholding back for the original consideration paid.
Amati was founded in 2010 by Paul Jourdan and Douglas Lawson following the management buyout of Noble Fund Managers Limited. It focuses on small and mid-sized companies, with a universe ranging from fully listed constituents of the FTSE Mid 250 and FTSE Small Cap indices, to stocks quoted on AIM. It currently manages £120m of funds, including the TB Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund; two AIM Venture Capital Trusts – Amati VCT and Amati VCT 2; and an AIM IHT portfolio service.
In the year ended December 31, 2016, Amati generated a profit before taxation of £490,000 on revenues of £1.76m.
Ian Mattioli, chief executive of Mattioli Woods, said: “Our investment in Amati represents an exciting extension to our existing asset management business and is another important step forward for Mattioli Woods as we continue to expand our operations.”
“Amati is a great fit culturally and strategically. There are few specialist UK fund managers with such a long and stable heritage, utilising the combined experience of an investment team with over 50 years’ knowledge of UK smaller companies. The team’s performance has been recognised in a number of awards and ratings. I believe this investment will significantly enhance the Group’s fund management expertise.”
Dr Paul Jourdan, Amati’s chief executive officer, added: “As AIM investors we have known and admired Mattioli Woods for many years. As this transaction has evolved over the past year we have realised not only that our businesses are highly complementary, but that we share similar values and business culture. We are very much looking forwards to working closely with them, and believe that as a result we will be able to take our specialist investment products to a much wider audience.”
