Edinburgh fund manager Amati strikes share sale deal - with takeover optional

Amati Global Investors, the Edinburgh-based fund house, has struck a share deal that may lead to its eventual takeover.

The agreement has been reached with Mattioli Woods, the AIM-listed wealth management and employee benefits business which has offices in Aberdeen and Glasgow providing wealth management services relating to investments and pensions.

The firm is paying £3.3 million in a mixture of cash and shares for a 49 per cent stake in Amati.

However, the deal also includes an option to buy the remainder of the firm during the two-year period beginning on 6 February 2019.

The agreement states that should Mattioli Woods choose not to exercise that option, Amati will be able to buy back the 49 per cent stake at the same price it sold it for.

Mattioli Woods chief executive Ian Mattioli added that Amati is “a great fit culturally and strategically” and the deal would “significantly enhance the group’s fund management expertise”.

Amati chief executive Paul Jourdan, the former first violinist who co-founded the firm in 2010 when he and Douglas Lawson led a management buyout of Noble Fund Managers, explained that the specialist in small business investing, has “known and admired Mattioli Woods for many years”.

He said: “As this transaction has evolved over the past year we have realised not only that our businesses are highly complementary, but that we share similar values and business culture.”

He added: “We are very much looking forward to working closely with them and believe that as a result we will be able to take our specialist investment products to a much wider audience.”

Mr Jourdan and Mr Lawson currently co-manage the TB Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund as well as the Amati VCT and Amati VCT 2.

Amati has assets under management of £120m and saw turnover rise by 12 per cent to £1.8m in the year to December 2016. During the same period pre-tax profits fell from £547,000 to £490,000, down 10 per cent.

This came after turnover fell from £2.9m in 2014 to £1.6m in 2015 as a result of the firm waiving its right to receive a performance fee on Amati VCT 2.