UK-based online investment platform Interactive Investor (ii) has agreed to acquire British retail stockbroker The Share Centre for £61.9m ($80.6m).
The deal adds £5bn in assets to ii’s books, boosting the latter’s assets to £35bn.
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As per the agreed terms, Share shareholders would be entitled to get 4.1p in cash and a proportion of ii share for each share held.
Share executive chairman Gavin Oldham said: “At our Annual General Meeting in June 2019, I spoke of our major strategic ambition to transform Share plc’s business over the coming years. We have to grow significantly in order to achieve this, not only in profitability but also in scale and in substance.
“That is why we have been prepared to investigate how others, who share our ambition for a more egalitarian form of capitalism, would work with us in order to achieve it. With our prospective new colleagues in ii we have discovered just such a meeting of minds, and a shared purpose for the future.”
According to ii, the merger would provide greater scale and capability to drive its growth.
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By GlobalDataThe transaction is pending shareholder and regulatory nod.
ii CEO Richard Wilson believes that the consolidation would make the firm a “leader in the retail investment services marketplace”.
Wilson noted: “Combining our individual strengths brings further scale and the opportunity to deliver enhanced value, service and customer experience to an enlarged customer base.”
Consolidation activities in the UK adviser platform space have been rampant lately.
Last year, ii acquired Alliance Trust Savings from parent Alliance Trust for £40m.
Moreover, recently, private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners agreed to acquire UK wealthtech platform Wealthtime.
