Ares Management and Maven Capital Partners back acquisitive new business
Titan Wealth Holdings looks to grow assets under management to £20bn-£30bn over next 5 years
Private equity groups Ares Management and Maven Capital Partners have teamed up with a family office to back the launch of an acquisitive new business in the UK wealth and asset management market.
Titan Wealth Holdings is launching with two acquisitions: Tavistock Wealth, a multi-asset manager with £1bn in assets under management for retail clients, and Global Prime Partners, which has £2bn in assets under administration and provides execution, settlement and custody services.
It wants to grow assets under management to a target £20bn-£30bn over the next five years through more deals, and is seeking to take advantage of a fragmented market for discretionary fund managers. The new group will bring fund management, administration and a technology platform all under one roof.
The launch of Titan comes as consolidation is sweeping across the wealth and asset management industries. Groups that run money on behalf of demographics ranging 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 the rising cost of regulation are eating into their margins.
Martin Gilbert, the founder of Aberdeen Asset Management, is looking to tap into the trend with his new venture AssetCo. The Aim-listed company last month announced the acquisition of Edinburgh-based boutique Saracen Fund Managers. On a much larger scale LGT Group, which is run by the Liechtenstein royal family, last year fully acquired LGT Vestra, four years after it initially took a majority stake in the wealth manager.
Titan is backed by £170m in capital from Ares, Maven and Hambleden Capital, the private office of the Sarikhani family. The chair of Hambleden, Ali Sarikhani, set up Vistra Trust, an administration business that now has $370bn in assets under administration.
Titan is founded by James Kaberry and Andrew Fearon, who are co-chief executives of the new business. Kaberry set up Pantheon Financial, which became one of the UK’s largest IFA groups, in 2000. He later sold it to Friends Life in 2007 before buying it back in 2000 and reselling it again in 2017. Fearon has worked as a director and investor within several private companies.
Kaberry and Fearon said: “The discretionary fund management sector is currently in a state of flux with considerable dislocation and outdated processes as technology and client demand evolve ever more quickly. The market is ripe for consolidation.”
Titan is in deal talks with six other discretionary fund managers, and is focusing on groups with between £100m and £1.5bn of assets under management. It is targeting £30m-£40m in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the next two years.