UK wealth manager Quilter has agreed to buy financial advisory service firm Lighthouse for £46.2mln.
Lighthouse, an AIM listed firm with 400 financial advisers, will merge with Quilter’s advice business, Intrinsic.
Quilter, which made its stock market debut in June 2018 after being spun out of Old Mutual, will pay £42.2mln for the acquisition after adjusting for £4mln of excess cash on Lighthouse’s balance sheet.
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The deal represents a 24.5% premium to Lighthouse's closing share price of 26.5p on Tuesday.
Quilter chief executive, Paul Feeney, said: "As the advice market consolidates the strategic acquisition of Lighthouse will help secure Quilter’s position as the place to go for trusted financial advice in the UK."
Lighthouse chairman, Richard Last, said: "We have continued to make good financial and strategic progress in recent years despite softening market conditions and a tougher regulatory backdrop.
"However, the board believes that Lighthouse will benefit significantly from becoming part of Intrinsic and the wider Quilter group and will be better positioned to deliver an enhanced customer proposition and offer increased opportunities to current staff and advisers that will be available within a larger group."
Last, who will stand down as chairman in May after seven years in the role, added that the acquisition provides Lighthouse shareholders with the opportunity to realise their investment in full and in cash at an attractive premium to the levels at which the share price has traded in recent months.
The executive management team of Intrinsic, which has 3,500 advisers, is expected to replace Last as chairman and Lighthouse non-executive directors.
The deal is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2019.
In February, Lighthouse reported a 5% rise in profits to £2.6mln for 2018 on revenue that was largely flat at £53mln.
In morning trading, Lighthouse shares jumped 20.9% to 32.05p while Quilter shares were little changed at 153.08p.