LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - WH Ireland has executed a conditional agreement with Ravenscroft Holdings to dispose of its Isle of Man subsidiary, WH Ireland IOM, it announced on Monday.
The AIM-traded firm said it also intended to enter into a collaboration agreement with Ravenscroft, which it said would enable its continuing wealth management business to offer solutions to clients in international jurisdictions.

It said the Isle of Man subsidiary held the business and "largely institutional" assets of its Isle of Man wealth management office.

Started as a new venture in 2014, the office now provided investment management services to a "diverse" international client base, and contributed around £1.2m of annual revenue to the group.

The assets under management of the office were £337m in the 2019 financial year, and were £353m as at 25 June on an unaudited basis.

WH Ireland said the business had six full time employees, including two executive directors, and two non-executive directors.

It described Ravenscroft as an independently owned investment services group listed on the International Stock Exchange, with offices in Guernsey, Jersey and the UK.

Ravenscroft employs more than 100 people across those jurisdictions, and had £7.45bn of assets under administration at the end of 2019, with revenue of more than £27.85m.

It said the Ravenscroft group serviced both private and institutional clients.

The consideration payable under the agreement to WH Ireland for the IOM subsidiary was a cash payment of £0.25m, and a deferred payment of up to £0.41m.

WH Ireland said the deferred payment would be determined by the ongoing trading of the office after completion.

Just prior to completion, the company said it would also receive repayment in full of the intra-group subordinated loan it provided to the Isle of Man of £0.985m, and a further intercompany loan repayment of £0.16m.

The conditional disposal was progressing with "the full support" of the directors of the Isle of Man office, the board said.

Completion remained conditional on the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals from the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority.

"We are pleased to announce this next step in streamlining WH Ireland's wealth management operations into a smaller number of integrated, larger locations focused on delivering a high quality service to our private clients," said chief executive officer Phillip Wale.

"The disposal of the Isle of Man subsidiary will continue this process whilst freeing up capital and management resources to focus on and invest in growing the core wealth management business and returning it to profitability."

At 1033 BST, shares in WH Ireland were down 5.17% at 41.25p.

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