DC Advisory advised Fidelius Group on its strategic alliance with Pacific Asset Management

Background:

• Fidelius Group (Fidelius) is a major UK financial planning group with GBP 1.5 billion assets under management (AuM), headquartered in Bath, with offices across the south of England
• Pacific Asset Management (PAM) is the core asset management arm of Sir John Beckwith’s Pacific Investment Group, with AuM totalling GBP 1.2 billion
• The proposed terms of the strategic alliance involved a share swap arrangement whereby PAM would acquire Fidelius’ discretionary fund management (DFM) business, while Fidelius would acquire PAM’s financial planning subsidiaries, in doing so taking a minority shareholding in each other's businesses

Process: 

• DC was engaged by Fidelius in a retained capacity to advise on a variety of work streams, including:
  • The structuring of the deal;
  • Commercial strategy;
  • Timing;
  • Valuations; and
  • Negotiation of the strategic alliance proposal.

Outcome:

• Despite challenging market conditions imposed by COVID-19 during the conclusion of the transaction, DC supported Fidelius in achieving the outcome below:
  • PAM acquired Fidelius’ DFM business Parallel Investment Management (PIM)
  • PAM assumed responsibility for PIM’s model portfolio range, which controls around GBP 400 million in AuM
  • In turn, Fidelius acquired PAM’s financial planning arms, Chartered Financial Management and Zen Wealth, which were acquired in July 2018 and 2019 respectively
  • PAM and Fidelius taking similar minority stakes in each others’ businesses
• As a result of the strategic alliance, Fidelius is now very well positioned to drive significant growth, and we look forward to providing further support for their ambitious plans

We hugely valued DC Advisory’s support in this transaction which represents an important strategic milestone for our business, and we were particularly impressed by their sector insight, commercial know-how and deal structure advice.

DC Advisory is delighted to have supported Fidelius on its strategic alliance with Pacific Asset Management, a transaction which creates a compelling platform for growth and which will allow them to go from strength to strength.