LONDON (ShareCast) - Shares in wealth management outfit Rathbone Brothers have been placed at 1,235p a pop with institutional investors, allowing the firm to top up its war-chest.

The company raised £24.7m (gross) through the issue of 2m shares, half a million more than it was targeting when it announced the share placing first thing on Wednesday morning.

The group is hitting the acquisition trail again and so it needs the money. Its first purchase is the UK private client investment management business of Taylor Young Investment Management (TYIM).

TYIM's management team will soon be wearing Rathbone colours after the latter agreed to pay up to £10m in cash for the business, although the consideration could rise to £15m by November 2014 depending on the performance of funds currently being managed by TYIM. Rathbones expects the transaction to be earnings neutral in 2013 prior to amortisation, and should start contributing to earnings from 2014 onwards.

As at November 2nd, TYIM had £337m of funds under management (FUM), and Rathbones has calculated that adding those funds to its own pot would increase FUM by 2.0% to £17.69bn.

Andy Pomfret, Chief Executive of Rathbone Brothers, said management expects to see more acquisition opportunities in the private client industry in the next few years.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE