Titan Wealth Closes Partnership Transaction with Parthenon Capital

Titan Wealth [Titan] finalised the closing of its previously announced partnership transaction with Parthenon Capital [Parthenon]. Parthenon will provide access to additional resources as Titan executes on its strategy to provide integrated financial advice, investment management, and platform services through a comprehensive client-to-custody strategy.

Parthenon is a leading growth-oriented private equity firm with a long track record of building franchise companies in the wealth management sector. Parthenon acquired a majority stake in Titan.

Titan has also completed the previously announced acquisition of Telford Mann, a leading financial advice business based in Kettering. The Telford Mann transaction represents another important milestone as Titan builds out its financial advice capability, a key component of the firm’s client-to-custody strategy.

TITAN WEALTH ACQUIRES ASPIRA CORPORATE SOLUTIONS

Titan Wealth Holdings (Titan) has today announced that it is acquiring Aspira Corporate Solutions Limited (subject to regulatory approval).The acquisition increases Titan’s AuM by £4bn to a total of £16.6bn.  

Established in 2000, Aspira Corporate Solutions has become a driving force within the independent financial advisory and employee benefits sector. Based in Bristol, it draws upon years of expertise to offer valuable financial advice via its team of 50 financial and corporate advisors to over 15,000 private and corporate clients across the UK. Aspira’s business model centres on providing expert, personal advice to its clients, built on strong, long-term relationships. It works closely with its diverse array of clients to ensure the advice it provides is constantly adapting to changing external and internal circumstances.

Aspira is a highly-regarded and successful financial advice business, and the acquisition will complement the existing retail offering of the Titan group and elevate its overall position in the market. Titan is already in a strategic partnership with Aspira to develop the investment proposition and manage the Aspira Model Portfolio Service investments.

Derek Miles, CEO of Aspira will become CEO of the financial planning division of Titan, with the remit to oversee the financial planning business within the Titan Group focussing on providing existing and new retail and corporate clients with financial advice and solutions.

Andrew Fearon, Joint Group CEO and Head of M&A at Titan said: “Aspira is an outstanding firm, which has been evident since our first meeting. This acquisition aligns with Titan’s growth ambitions, expands our financial advice offering and further develops the ‘Client to Custody’ offering, which is central to our overall corporate strategy.

“We are excited to work closely with Derek and the team at Aspira, to support them on their journey and to grow and develop Titan Financial Planning.”

Derek Miles, CEO of Aspira saidWe are delighted to be joining the Titan team, to further enhance the range of solutions we can offer our clients and solidify our market position.

It is clear from the many discussions we have had to date that Aspira and Titan are very much aligned in our shared vision of an innovative and integrated approach to financial advice. Today’s announcement marks a key step in our journey to enhance and improve our client proposition and brings with it lots of exciting opportunities which we will be working closely together to develop.

I am personally excited to take the Aspira team to such a forward thinking business and to join Andrew, James and the rest of the senior team at Titan to deliver on the fantastic potential of the expanding group”

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.

TITAN WEALTH REACHES CHANGE OF CONTROL MILESTONEWITH PARTHENON CAPITAL

The FCA has authorised change of control between Titan Wealth Holdings (Titan) and Parthenon Capital (Parthenon), formalising the strategic partnership between the two businesses. Closing will occur later this month.  

Parthenon is a leading U.S. private equity firm with deep financial services expertise and a strong
track-record and reputation in the wealth management sector. Following closing Parthenon will become the majority shareholder in Titan.

Parthenon will provide Titan with strong financial backing and support its aim to deliver integrated financial advice, investment, and platform services through a comprehensive client-to-custody strategy. Access to additional capital will also help support Titan’s ongoing M&A activity.

Andrew Fearon, Joint CEO and Head of M&A at Titan said: “The change of control milestone cements our relationship with Parthenon. The deal supports our overall acquisition strategy and will be instrumental for our future growth plans as a business. Parthenon’s substantial expertise in growing and developing businesses will also be invaluable for Titan, as we continue with our growth plans.”

Andrew Dodson, Managing Partner at Parthenon Capital said: “Titan is a fantastic business and the perfect investment for our first venture into the UK wealth market. From our many conversations with the team, it is clear that our strategic ambitions for the Titan business are very much in alignment. We look forward to working with the Titan team as they continue to build on the strong track record of growth and enhance the business’s unique, vertically integrated client-to-custody support.”

Titan Investment Solutions appointed to manage Tideway UCITS Funds ICAV

Titan Wealth have announced that the Tideway UCITS Funds ICAV has appointed Titan Investment Solutions as Investment Manager to the newly renamed Titan Hybrid Capital Bond Fund (the Fund). As a result, the investment team, which includes Peter Doherty and Chris Turdean, has joined Titan Wealth to manage and grow the Fund.

The Fund was incepted in August 2016 and has since returned 24.3% to investors and 11.7% over the last 12 months. It invests in high quality global issuers, lower down in the capital structure to achieve enhanced yield. It now boasts a Yield to Maturity of 8.8% and an Effective Duration of 5.2 years, positioning it well to prosper at the back end of the current rate hiking cycle. The Fund’s distributing share-class has provided investors with a distribution yield of 7.6% over the last 12 months (£6.64p per unit).

The Fund will be run by Peter Doherty, Head of Fixed Income and Lead Fund Manager. Peter has over 35 years’ experience in fixed income markets. He set-up the Tideway UCITS Funds ICAV and has been Lead Manager on the Titan Hybrid Capital Bond Fund (previously the Sanlam Hybrid Capital Bond Fund) since its inception in 2016.

Peter will be accompanied by Chris Turdean, Investment Associate. Chris has 5 years’ experience in fixed income and started his career working as Portfolio Manager Assistant on the Fund.

Paul Hunt, CEO Titan Asset Management, comments:

“We are thrilled to welcome Peter and Chris to Titan. The investment team have done a fantastic job of managing the Titan Hybrid Capital Bond Fund since its inception, bringing an impressive track record and the highest rating of 5-Crowns from FE fundinfo.

“As part of the Titan Investment Solutions team, Peter and Chris will play a key role in building out our in-house fixed income offering, with new and innovative products that meet the needs and requirements of Titan Group’s clients and the broader UK wealth management market.”

Peter Doherty, Head of Fixed Income, comments:

“It is exciting to combine the dynamic growth culture at Titan with an incredible opportunity set in the fixed income markets. We look forward to creating and managing differentiated fixed income funds and products for the benefit of private clients both within the Titan Group and across the wider UK Wealth Management and DFM markets.”    

Titan Wealth acquires Prism Financial Advice Ltd

Well established business with c.£630m AUA

Titan Wealth Holdings (Titan) announces today that it has acquired independent financial advice firm Prism Financial Advice Ltd [subject to regulatory approval]. The acquisition will increase Titan Wealth’s total assets under management / advice to over £12.6bn.

Based in Gateshead, Prism is a well-established financial advice firm, with a team of 17 independent financial advisers, 25 support staff and over £630m assets under advice. Established in 2005 Prism has extensive expertise within financial planning, including pensions, investments, and protection.

Prism will be fully incorporated into Titan – benefitting from access to Titan’s wider group product and services in the process. With Prism’s office based in the north of England, the acquisition represents a valuable opportunity for Titan to expand its geographical footprint across the UK. 

Andrew Fearon, Joint CEO & Head of M&A at Titan said: “Prism is an extremely well-run business, with a strong reputation in the industry. This acquisition will further bolster the Titan network, allowing us to enhance the advisory offering that form part of our client to custody solutions and services.”

Stephen Price, Managing Director at Prism, said: “I, and my fellow owners/directors, Michael Smith and Neil McGann believe the acquisition of Prism by Titan, represents a significant move forward in the growth and development of the business, and a sound endorsement of our drive to be the adviser of choice for those who seek truly independent financial advice.

Over the last year we have worked very closely with Titan’s senior leadership to establish if the acquisition of Prism was the right move for all parties, and we have been very impressed with their likeminded approach, their openness, their vision, and their strong commitment to deliver market leading financial solutions to consumers.                                                          

Our decision to become part of Titan was reached, only after much research and analysis of their business structure, their culture, their plans for growth and development, and the benefits such a move would bring to our clients, our employees, and the wider Titan group. In all respects, we are now very clear that the acquisition will deliver immediate and long term benefits on all those fronts and further establish the group as major force in UK financial services.  

We are delighted to be joining Titan, as it continues to expand and diversify its portfolio and look forward to working with the whole team to enhance who we are, what we do, and how we do what we do.”

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.

Titan Wealth funds annual MyLondon photography contest to support the homeless

GPP part of the  Titan Wealth Holdings group has provided funding for the annual ‘MyLondon’ project, which aims to empower those who are and have recently been made homeless.

GPP has provided the funding for prizes for the MyLondon photography competition, which has run every Summer in London for the past decade. The 2023 event took place between Friday 26 May and Friday 2 June, with awards including best portrait and most creative photo. Participants in the contest have all recently become homeless; coming mainly from art groups run by homelessness-sector organisations, including Crisis, St Mungo’s and 240 Project.

The MyLondon project also involves photography training, an exhibition, and the printing and selling of calendars, greeting cards, and photographs. The initiative aims to inspire people affected by homelessness in London to create lasting change in their own lives through confidence building, learning new skills and social inclusion. It also seeks to increase understanding of the issues surrounding homelessness in a positive way.

MyLondon is run by Café Art – a London-based charity with a mission to change lives and empower people affected by homelessness through creativity and entrepreneurship. Titan Wealth contacted Cafe Art to rent paintings and MYLONDON photos to decorate their recently expanded office in London. The rental scheme supports artists and photographers who are and have been homeless. By supporting these people Titan Wealth is helping us help people reconnect with the wider community and also to help them financially.

Find out more about Café Art – www.cafeart.org.uk/mylondon

Julian Parker, Chairman, GPP, said: “MyLondon is a fantastic initiative, which empowers people affected by homelessness in London by providing them with a safe and sociable environment where they can express themselves through art. As a business, we are extremely passionate about charitable initiatives that are driving positive change in creative ways. We are committed to supporting charitable initiatives like MyLondon project, as the business continue to grow. .”Paul Ryan, at MyLondon, said: ‘’By helping Cafe Art and MYLONDON through supporting the 2023 MYLONDON project, which results in the 2024 MYLONDON calendar, Titan Wealth/GPP is making a real difference in a constructive and positive way’’

Titan Wealth acquires Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research Ltd

Well established business with c. £2.6bn in MPS portfolios

27 June 2023 – Titan Wealth Holdings [Titan Wealth] announces it has acquired investment research and consultancy firm Square Mile, subject to regulatory approval.

Square Mile brings a wealth of expertise, including a 21-strong team of research analysts covering the universe of UK retail funds, an investment management team responsible for Square Mile’s range of MPS solutions and its consultancy services for financial intermediaries and institutions.  In Titan Wealth, Square Mile has secured a long-term shareholder, committed to growing and developing its range of client services enabling them to deliver enhanced customer outcomes, and helping to expand the firm’s market footprint.

The acquisition encompasses the c.£2.6bn in assets under management currently held within Square Mile’s MPS portfolios and will enable Titan Wealth to further expand its competitive, low-cost MPS proposition. Titan Wealth will also benefit from Square Mile’s broad industry relationships across the financial advice and asset management sectors.

Square Mile will continue to operate under its own brand following the acquisition and its management and wider team will remain in place both supporting and being supported by Titan Wealth in achieving its ambitions.

The acquisition takes Titan Wealth’s AUM to £12bn and strengthens the fully integrated client to custody solutions.

Andrew Fearon, Joint CEO & Head of M&A at Titan Wealth said: “Square Mile is a highly reputable business whose products and services integrate and align seamlessly with Titan’s. This latest acquisition further bolsters our aim to bring high-quality execution and administration to the asset and wealth management sector through our our client to custody solutions and services.”

Richard Romer-Lee, Square Mile’s CEO, said: ”This acquisition represents a very exciting opportunity for our clients, the business and our team.  The backing of Titan Wealth will help us strengthen and broaden our clients offerings, supports Square Mile’s long-term growth aspirations and opens new professional avenues for our staff within the broader group. Moreover, Titan Wealth and Square Mile have a close cultural fit with a client-centric approach and a focus on delivering superior customer outcomes and we are confident that this development will bring significant benefits to all.”  

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval

Titan Wealth acquires Ravenscroft investment management business in the UK

Well established business with c.£600m AUM and offices in Peterborough and Bishop’s Stortford

Titan Wealth Holdings [Titan Wealth] announces it has entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire [subject to shareholder and regulatory approval]  Ravenscroft‘s UK-based investment management business. Guernsey-based Ravenscroft is a well-established wealth management business. Its two offices in the UK have a combined AUM of £600m and provide discretionary, advisory and execution-only services to nearly 2,300 clients.

The acquisition takes Titan Wealth’s AUM to £9.4bn and reinforces our current capabilities and strengthens our fully integrated client to custody solutions and services.

Ravenscroft operates from two offices in England. The majority of clients are based in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire and they will benefit from access to Titan Wealth’s wider group products and services.

The Peterborough office has grown organically through personal relationships and direct client recommendations. The investment proposition is largely bespoke, investing predominantly in funds and with some equities. The Bishop’s Stortford office investment proposition is primarily based on “model-style” portfolios. The teams from both offices will move across to Titan Wealth.

Andrew Fearon, Joint CEO & Head of M&A at Titan said: ‘Ravenscroft is a well-run business possessing a high-quality, loyal client base. The business will integrate with our network, enabling greater distribution of the investment and advisory offering that form part of our client to custody solutions and services.’

Jon Ravenscroft, Group CEO of Ravenscroft, said: ‘Titan has acquired a number of asset management firms in accordance with its growth strategy and we have spent a considerable amount of time ensuring they were the correct fit. Titan has the same ‘client first’ ethos and I’m confident that this development is the right move for both our UK teams and their clients. It will also allow Ravenscroft to focus on the offshore market – which we know extremely well – where the large majority of our clients, shareholders and staff remain. We would like to thank M&A specialist Dyer Baade & Company for their assistance in this transaction’

International Women’s Day: The Investment Impact

This International Women’s Day we decided to do something a little different. When it comes to Environmental, Social, and Governance and sustainable investment, there is a hidden demographic that most investment decisions do not consider. This week we dive deeper into our Sustainable investment portfolio policies to see how our investment policies, screening practices, and choices impact women in communities where our investments have a real effect. Achieving milestones such as UN Sustainable Development Goals in our sector requires an intersectional feminist view, protecting women on the ground who are being directly impacted by our allocations and decisions. By looking at an investable organisation’s means of production, board and funding decisions, and internal policies we can assess whether it particularly negatively impacts women on a Social and Governance level.

So then – how can this apply to women globally? Women are particularly at risk of falling foul to Modern Slavery due to pre-existing marginalisation, poverty, and social norms.[i] The Modern Slavery document cites the business sector as needing to play a stronger and ‘more systemic’ role in removing the main key factors which drive the slavery market. 70% of the 40.3 million people in modern slavery are women and girls; and investment into companies with non-disclosed supply chains, unregulated resourcing and non-transparent human and worker rights is contributing to the international suffering of women and girls.[ii]

Our Sustainability lead, James Peel, writes below explaining how our policies for our Sustainability portfolio are designed to curb these, and ultimately how our sector has much further to go.

Investing for Women

The systemic lack of gender equality in the business and investment community has been a problem for a long time. Although a gender gap – the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes, according to the World Economic Forum – still persists, there is good reason to believe that it will start to close meaningfully in the future. This is because there is an increasing understanding of the myriad benefits that come with efforts to improve equality. For example, the UN Principles of Responsible Investment notes that more diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at a company can positively affect decision-making, employee engagement, reputation amongst stakeholders, innovation and access to new markets. The organisation also warns of the risks of not prioritising DEI in the workplace.

For most investment product providers, the E in ESG has historically been the primary focus of attention. This bias is reflected in the make-up of our investable universe, which includes plenty of products that consider environmental concepts like climate change but far fewer that consider social concepts like equality or, more specifically, things like women’s health. However, that doesn’t mean that integrating social considerations into the investment process is unfeasible, especially as the quantity and quality of relevant non-financial data continues to improve.

Our sustainable investment policy demands that the strategies within our investment proposition governed by this policy achieve an MSCI ESG Rating of AA, which corresponds to a classification of Leader. This means that our exposure to and management of equality-relevant issues like labour management, human capital development and corporate governance is optimal. More, by excluding companies in violation of the UN Global Impact from our investable universe, we ensure that we have no exposure to companies flagged for breaching the 6th of the Ten Principles of the Global Impact, which states that “businesses should uphold the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation”.

With the help of one of our new data providers, Util, we are now also able to measure whether the actions of companies held across our sustainability-labelled proposition are generating any positive or negative outcomes in the real world. To do so, Util uses natural language processing to assess how companies affect the UN Sustainable Development Goals (including SDG 5, Gender Equality), which can be further broken down into thousands of other sustainability concepts.

There remains a long way to go to close the gender gap, but the reasons to prioritise doing so are clear. Helpfully, relevant non-financial data is better than it used to be, making it easier to shift capital allocation towards solving this important global challenge.

International Women’s Day

For instance, when investing in the healthcare sector in an ESG portfolio, there are an increasing number of factors to assess from a Social and Governance angle. Healthcare, particularly in the United States, suffers from a large medical research bias, heavily favouring men.[iii] Papers from medical educational institutions are revealing that the industry shows a consistent pattern for favouring male pharma, and funding pharmaceuticals for men, this study reveals that while Viagra was approved 6 months after being submitted to the FDA for approval, it took 17 years for the contraceptive pill.[iv] So then, when investing in healthcare we should be looking at the board’s budget allocation, questioning if it allocates enough to female pharma such as menopause research, questioning if the research is also conducted on female trial subjects. The above study highlights that there is even a gender discrimination between what medical insurers will cover, most insurers will cover a prescription for Viagra but not the contraceptive pill.[v] Should one wish to invest in the healthcare insurance sector in an ESG portfolio, it’s worth considering if there is gender discrimination in the company from a granular level up to a systemic, discriminatory policy-making level. If one is holding healthcare stock in an ESG portfolio which allocates the majority of its funding to men’s pharma, tests drugs on mixed sex subjects, and allocates healthcare policy based on systemic gender or sex challenges, then it may not really meet your ESG’s ‘Social’ criteria at all.

Women then are placed between a rock and a hard place when facing our industry, CityWire reported in 2021 that only 11.8% of portfolio managers were women – and that this was an improvement on last year.[vi] So not only are women typically absent from the investment decision-making process, but the industry is relying on the overwhelming amount of men in the decision-making position to consider the factors that affect this demographic, hidden away in the overlooked Social and Governance part of ESG.

Women are a hidden demographic in ESG, and by investing in organisations which comply with the UN Sustainable Development goals and the like, comes better reassurance that women are not disproportionately affected by our investment decisions. While we have much further to go with representation and policies to protect and empower, there is much, much more work to be done.

https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings/esg-ratings-key-issue-framework

https://unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles

https://www.unpri.org/human-rights/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-key-action-areas-for-investors/9393.article


[i]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/726283/modern-slavery-womens-economic-empowerment.pdf

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16040176/, https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1204&context=jlh

[iv] https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1204&context=jlh

[v] Ibid.

[vi] https://citywire.com/americas/news/alpha-female-2021-just-11-8-of-portfolio-managers-are-women-and-that-s-an-improvement/a1553798

New Horizon Youth Centre

Every year, thousands of young Londoners are pushed into homelessness and danger through no fault of their own. 

That’s why New Horizon Youth Centre exists, and why our new sponsorship is all the more important.

Based in the King’s Cross area, New Horizon Youth Centre (NHYC) is a non-profit organisation offering support to young people aged 16-24 to overcome the barriers life has put in their way and solve their homelessness for good. Through their day centre and outreach services, they offer expert help with health, safety, youth work, and housing.

Statistics have been provided for us by the charity on the stark reality of the UK’s youth homelessness crisis. In their 2021 annual report, NHYC recorded that 30% of youth they provided services to have experience of the care system, and 32% have experienced the criminal justice system.[1] The charity also reports a 20% increase of young people sleeping rough in 2020 compared to 2019.[2] As well as providing housing, NHYC work tirelessly to bring stability, safety and support that a young person needs to start getting their lives back on track.

At Titan Wealth Holdings, we continue to be impressed by the work that NHYC undertake. Our partnership arose from Executive Partner, Julian Parker’s fondness and support for the charity, and Titan Wealth Holdings were keen to take over the sponsorship of the NHYC after acquiring GPP’s custody and clearing firm. We’re proud to sponsor such a charity, and we’ll keep doing our part to aid NHYC in their task to provide homeless youth with opportunities and solid foundations. For as long as young people find themselves homeless and unsafe in London, NHYC will be on a mission to give their potential a home. To find out more about the charity and their work, please follow the link below: https://nhyouthcentre.org.uk/


[1] Statistics from the New Horizon Youth Centre Annual Report 2021, https://nhyouthcentre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/NHYC_AnnualReport_20_21-Final.pdf, page 6.

[2] Ibid, 13.

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