Gilbert’s AssetCo takes £27.8m stake in Parmenion

Former Standard Life Aberdeen join chief executive Martin Gilbert’s AssetCo has acquired a 30% stake in Parmenion Capital Partners.

AssetCo is expected to pay £27.8m for the equity stake.

Standard Life Aberdeen also completed its sale of Parmenion today to private equity house Preservation Capital Partners, in a £102m deal which was announced in March. 

AssetCo will a payment of £20.6m due on completion and up to £3.6m due in March 2022 and March 2023 for its 30% stake in the parent company of investment platform Parmenion.

Mr Gilbert was appointer chairman of AssetCo in March to spearhead its new acquisition strategy.

Parmenion manages £8bn of assets on behalf of over 2,500 advisers and 68,000 underlying clients.

Preservation Capital Partners (PCP) specialises in acquiring financial services businesses. Its current portfolio includes Lloyds broker BMS and insurance managing agent Optio.

It said it will treat Parmenion as a standalone acquisition with no plans for major changes at the outset and no integration planned with other businesses.

There will be no changes to Parmenion’s operations, management or team.

Standard Life Aberdeen confirmed it was starting to look for a buyer for the platform in November. Parmenion was one of three adviser platforms operated by the group.

Standard Life Aberdeen sold its Standard Life brand to the Phoenix Group in February as part of a branding review of all its businesses.

There has been speculation since Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management merged in 2017 over whether the combined group would hold on to all three of its platforms: Wrap, Elevate and Parmenion.