Newly created advice and wealth management company Solomon Capital Holdings has agreed to acquire financial planning firm Beaufort Group for an undisclosed sum.
Solomon was set up by former Quilter Financial Planning chief executive Andy Thompson and chief financial officer Darren Sharkey. The business is being backed by global private equity firm JC Flowers & Co.
As part of the deal, Solomon will take full ownership of Beaufort Financial and You Asset Management. Beaufort Financial and You AM will retain their brands and control over day-to-day operations.
Beaufort Group chief executive Derrick Dunne and co-chair Simon Goldthorpe will join the executive team at Solomon, with Goldthorpe becoming vice chairman.
Based in the UK, Beaufort Financial is a financial planning firm that offers advice to individual clients and private companies. You AM is an DFM company with over £1.4bn ($1.71bn, €1.63bn) in funds under management on behalf of private investors, trusts, charities and corporate bodies.
National expansion
Solomon was set up last year by Thompson and Sharkey with the aim to create a technology-enabled national advice business to serve mass affluent customers across the UK.
The acquisition, which remains subject to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approval, is the first stage of Solomon’s strategy to grow a UK-wide business, serving in excess of 50,000 clients.
Thompson said: “Over the years, Simon, Derrick, Andrew Bennett and the team have built tremendously successful businesses in Beaufort Financial, and You AM, earning great reputations in the process.
“The complimentary businesses provide a significant and strong set of foundations on which we can build, with a shared vision for the future. The talented professionals they employ and the proposition they have developed is second to none.”
Failed approach
The Solomon deal comes just over a year after IFA business Socium Group pulled out of negotiations to acquire Beaufort Group.
The two companies entered into an agreement in September 2020, but Beaufort said in April 2021, that Socium decided to withdraw its offer, “citing an inability to get our business to fit into ‘their model’”.
