Duke Street offloads UKWM

Duke Street acquired a majority stake in UKWM in March 2011 for £10m from JC Flowers. The private equity house's original investment strategy was to use the company as a platform for further acquisitions as the IFA market underwent changes due to new regulations concerning the way in which financial products are distributed to UK investors.

In January this year, Duke Street invested a further £2.2m into the company, mainly to settle liabilities held on its balance sheet since the initial acquisition and to provide further working capital.

Company
UKWM comprises a number of financial services businesses, which provide advice to individual, corporate and trustee clients. The companies trading under UKWM include Plain Insure, Plan Invest Group, Rocheberie Consulting, YIG Consulting and Yorkshire Investment Consultants.

The group also has an asset management company, which oversees the firm's overall investment strategy. Services provided include wealth management, employee benefits and protection, personal financial planning, as well as business protection and pension solutions.

UKWM reported a loss before tax of £145,000 in 2011, and a loss of £54,000 in 2010. As of October 2013, UKWM had £1.3bn of assets under management, revenues of £8.8m and EBITDA had reached break-even.

UKWM was established in 2002, is headquartered in Pontefract and operates 17 offices across the UK. The company was known as Yorkshire Investment Group until January 2011.

Advisors
Acquirer - Cantor Fitzgerald Europe (Corporate finance).

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• Topics
• Exits
• UK / Ireland
• Financials
• Duke Street
• United Kingdom
• Trade sale