The boards of Mattioli Woods plc (“Mattioli Woods”) and Tiger Bidco Limited (“Bidco”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of vehicles advised and managed by Pollen Street Capital Limited, are pleased to announce an agreement on the terms and conditions of a recommended cash offer by Bidco for Mattioli Woods. Mattioli Woods and Pollen Street believe there is an exciting opportunity for Mattioli Woods to accelerate its existing growth strategy under private ownership.
The Mattioli Woods Directors consider the terms of the acquisition to be fair and reasonable and intend to recommend unanimously that Mattioli Woods’ Shareholders vote in favour of the acquisition. The offer values Mattioli Woods at approximately £432 million and represents a premium of 34 per cent. to the closing price of 600 pence per Mattioli Woods share on 7 March 2024. Completion remains subject to regulatory approval.
In order to capitalise on the significant opportunity in the UK wealth market, Pollen Street believes that Mattioli Woods will benefit from transitioning to private ownership with the support of a growth-focused shareholder.
Pollen Street believes the acquisition will provide Mattioli Woods and its management team the flexibility to take longer-term decisions to maximise the growth potential of the business, continuing to invest in capabilities and client propositions, while also providing strategic support to develop new growth areas and operational expertise to drive greater efficiency.
Pollen Street has a strong track record of investing in financial services businesses across Europe, deploying capital into growth-oriented businesses and supporting their management teams in achieving their strategic ambitions.
The Mattioli Woods Directors see a compelling opportunity to accelerate Mattioli Woods’ existing strategy supporting stronger organic growth through deepening relationships with its existing clients, investing in technology to deliver better service for clients and improving the operational efficiency of Mattioli Woods’ systems and processes; alongside selective bolt-on and transformative acquisitions from Mattioli Woods’ identified M&A pipeline.
This press release should be read alongside the further details and information set out in the full announcement available at tiger.pollencap.com.
Commenting on the Acquisition, Ian Mattioli MBE, the CEO of Mattioli Woods, said:
“Since our admission to AIM in 2005, we have seen significant expansion in both the size and nature of our business, integrating asset management, financial planning and employee benefit services to serve personal and corporate clients throughout the UK.
“We have a strong track record of combining like-minded businesses that share the same culture and ethos of putting clients first. The team at Pollen Street share our passion for delivering exceptional client outcomes and have demonstrated their ability to partner with entrepreneurial financial services business. I believe that with Pollen Street’s support and access to capital we can accelerate the delivery of our strategy and provide our clients with the proactive advice and bespoke investment solutions they require.”
Commenting on the Acquisition, Anne Gunther, non-executive chair of Mattioli Woods said:
“The Mattioli Woods Board is pleased to announce its unanimous recommendation of this cash offer for Mattioli Woods, which not only delivers attractive value to Mattioli Woods shareholders in cash, allowing them to crystallise the value of their holdings, but also provides significant opportunity for clients, employees and wider stakeholders. Mattioli Woods is recognised as a leading advice-led wealth manager, and enjoys both direct distribution through its consultancy team and intermediated distribution through certain third parties. I believe that Mattioli Woods’ success is driven by an unwavering client-centric culture, the quality of its people and a responsibly integrated business model. The Mattioli Woods Board recognises the opportunities that can be delivered under private ownership, including access to incremental growth capital and other resources to accelerate the development of its technology and pursue transformative acquisitions. Pollen Street is highly supportive of the Mattioli Woods management team’s strategy to create one of the UK’s leading wealth managers with the critical scale and holistic product offering to address the changing financial planning and investment needs of its clients.”
Commenting on the Acquisition, Lindsey McMurray, Managing Partner of Pollen Street said:
“We are pleased to have reached agreement with the board of Mattioli Woods on the terms of Bidco’s offer to Mattioli Woods Shareholders. We believe Mattioli Woods would benefit from a transition to private ownership, which would enable Mattioli Woods to accelerate its growth strategy and to capitalise on the market opportunity in UK wealth management. Pollen Street has strong heritage in supporting companies in the financial and business services sectors and we are excited by the opportunity to work with Mattioli Woods in achieving our ambitious goals for the business.”
About Pollen Street
Pollen Street is a purpose led and high performing private capital asset manager. Established in 2013, the firm has built deep capability across the financial and business services sector aligned with mega-trends shaping the future of the industry. Pollen Street manages over £4.2bn AUM across private equity and credit strategies on behalf of investors including leading public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, asset managers, banks, and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street has a team of over 80 professionals with offices in London and the US.
For more information, visit: www.pollenstreetgroup.com
