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Canadian financial services group Canaccord Genuity is working with bankers to run a strategic review of its UK wealth management business, in a move that could lead to a sale of the C$63bn ($45bn) in assets division.
Canaccord and London-based boutique investment bank Fenchurch Advisory are assessing the future of Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management UK, according to two people familiar with the situation.
The strategic review was in its early stages and outcomes could include everything from an outright sale of the business to bringing another investor on board, the people said.
Fenchurch declined to comment.
Canaccord said in a statement that it “wishes to confirm that there is no plan to sell its wealth management business [in] the UK & Crown Dependencies and that it continues to have a productive working relationship with its strategic and financial partner. We are proud of the value that all our wealth management businesses have created and are fully committed to their continued growth.
It added that it “regularly explores opportunities to strengthen the value of its business and has been an active acquiror in all geographies where it has operations. We routinely engage with external advisors to assess market conditions and opportunities across our global business.”
The strategic review comes as a wave of consolidation is sweeping across the UK’s wealth management industry, as groups pursue deals to scale up to combat pressure from rising regulatory costs and competition from cheaper “DIY” investment sites.
Rathbones struck a £839mn deal last year to buy Investec Wealth & Investment UK to bulk up and help cut expenses.
Canaccord’s UK wealth management business provides financial advice to clients with assets of more than £250,000, or investment management services to clients who have over £250,000 of investable assets.
In the past decade or so, Canaccord has expanded in the UK through acquisitions. Most recently it bought the investment management business of Adam & Company from the Royal Bank of Scotland for £54mn in 2021, and acquired Punter Southall Wealth in 2022.
Although the UK wealth management business is majority owned by Canaccord in Canada, which has a market capitalisation of about C$1bn, New York-based private credit firm HPS Investment Partners also owns a stake. HPS, which is in talks to be acquired by the BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, declined to comment.
In the latest quarter the UK and Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Channel Islands made up half of Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management’s global revenues of C$217mn. But they rose at less than half the pace of the wider wealth management business when compared with a year earlier.
The UK wealth business also accounts for the lion’s share of the assets, with C$63bn, compared with C$40bn for North America and C$7.5bn for Australia.
Additional reporting by Eric Platt in New York
