The news was disclosed by St James’s Place chief executive David Bellamy today, as he unveiled the publicly-traded company’s annual results, and comes eight months after the Henley Group announced it was launching a UK operation in partnership with St James’s Place.
At the time, the Henley Group said it was launching the UK operation, which it was branding THG Wealth Management UK, in order to broaden the range of services it was able to offer clients who live in more than one country. It said the operation would open its doors initially in the St James’s Place offices in Bristol at the beginning of July.
If agreed, the acquisition of the Henley Group by St James's Place would be subject to regulatory approval, and for this reason, few details were given.
However, the sale is likely to be seen as significant by UK observers, who may see it as an effort by a UK wealth manager to reduce its reliance on the heavily-regulated and mature UK market.
Last year, Ian Gorham, chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown, the Bristol-based, FTSE 100-listed UK investment ‘supermarket’, was quoted as saying that his company was “eyeing up opportunities to expand overseas” in the “next three to five years”.
'Well-respected adviser business'
The Henley Group was described in St James’s Place’s results statement today as “a well-respected adviser business which has an existing team of advisers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai specialising in the provision of financial advice to members of the expatriate community in the Far East”.
“Notwithstanding the fact that we remain very focussed on our UK business, we see an opportunity to expand our services overseas to the expatriate community,” Bellamy said, in a statement accompanying the results.
“This is an area that we have been exploring for some time…
“This is an exciting development for us that we believe sits perfectly with our comprehensive investment approach and, subject to regulatory approval, the acquisition should be finalised in the first few months of 2014.”
A spokesman for the Henley Group said he was unable to comment on the acquisition. However, "I can say that we will be continuing to develop our UK proposition for returning expatriates through THG Wealth Management UK, which has enjoyed a successful first year to date," he added.
As for whether Michell would continue in some capacity with the company he founded if and when it is acquired by St James's Place, he added: "We can confidently say that SJP are very keen to work with our existing management team, led by Antony, in developing our footprint in the offshore market".
St James's Place was formerly part-owned by the Lloyds Banking Group, but became a wholly independent FTSE 250-listed company after Lloyds sold its final stake in the company in December.
For the year ending on 31 December – the first full year since the UK’s Retail Distribution Review rules banning commissions took effect on 1 January 2013 – the company posted a pre-tax profit of £190.7m, up 42% from the previous year, on net income of £6.85bn. Funds under management grew 27% to £44.3bn, the company said. The company's shares rose on the news by more than 5%.
The Henley Group was founded in 1990, and has offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai in addition to its Singapore headquarters and new UK outpost. It has some 55 advisers, and manages around £400m on behalf of its clients.
To see a video interview with Antony Michell, in which he talks about fee-based wealth management in Singapore, and his ambitions to treble the size of Henley's advisory team by 2020, click here.
