Ares Management and Maven Capital Partners back acquisitive new business

Private equity groups Ares Management and Maven Capital Partners have teamed up with a family office to support the launch of a new acquisition business in the UK asset and wealth management market.

Titan Wealth Holdings is launching with two acquisitions: Tavistock Wealth, a multi-asset executive with £1bn of assets for retail clients, and Global Prime Partners, which has £2bn of assets under management and provides enforcement, clearing and custody services.

It seeks to grow assets under management to a target of £20bn to £30bn through more deals over the next five years and seeks to capitalize on a fragmented market for discretionary fund managers. The new group will bring together the fund management, administration and technology platform under one roof.

Titan’s launch comes at a time when consolidation is taking the wealth and wealth management industries by storm. Groups that manage money on behalf of demographics, from retail investors and wealthy individuals to the largest institutional clients, are seeking more scale to compete in a world where low interest rates and rising regulatory costs are consuming their margins.

Martin Gilbert, founder of Aberdeen Asset Management, wants to catch up with the trend with his new venture, AssetCo. The Aim-listed company announced last month that it has acquired Edinburgh-based boutique Saracen Fund Managers. On a much larger scale, LGT Group, led by the Liechtenstein royal family, acquired LGT Vestra in its entirety last year, four years after acquiring a majority stake in the asset manager.

Titan is backed by Ares, Maven and Hambleden Capital, the private office of the Sarıhani family, with a capital of £170 million. Hambleden’s chairman, Ali Sarkhani, founded Vistra Trust, a management firm that now has $370 billion in assets under management.

Titan was founded by James Kaberry and Andrew Fearon, co-directors of the new business. Kaberry founded Pantheon Financial in 2000, which has become one of the UK’s largest IFA groups. He later sold it to Friends Life in 2007 and bought it again in 2000 and sold it again in 2017. Fearon worked in it as a director and investor. several private companies.

Kaberry and Fearon said: “As technology and customer demand evolve faster than ever, the discretionary fund management industry is currently in a state of change with significant displacement and outdated processes. The market is ripe for consolidation.”

Titan is in deal negotiations with six other discretionary fund managers and is focusing on groups with assets under its management between £100m and £1.5bn. It aims to gain between £30m and £40m in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and depreciation over the next two years.

Source: Bi’Burs