News blog
Kingswalk Investments Ltd
- BY: Andrew Hore |
- POSTED: 07/05/2012 |
Kingswalk Investments Ltd is becoming a financial services business following the purchase of 33.3% of wealth manager European Wealth Management Group.
Kingswalk was previously known as Equity Pre-IPO Investments Ltd. It has other investments, including corporate consultancy Combined Management Services and 49.9% of security equipment installer Vermeesch Installaties BV. It appears that from now on the focus of the company will be the financial services sector and this expansion will be through European Wealth.
Kingswalk is issuing 92m shares for the 33.3% stake in European Wealth. That is nearly as many shares as are currently in issue.
The founders of European Wealth include former Aberdeen Asset Management chairman George Robb and Rod Gentry who used to run wealth manager Ashcourt Holdings. Kishore Gopaul of Courvoisier and Rod Gentry are joining the Kingswalk board. Another founder is former Syndicate Asset Management boss John Morton.
European Wealth has already made acquisitions in Maidstone and Cheltenham and it plans further purchases in order to grow the business. It also has offices in London and Brighton and management wants to have further regional offices in the UK and mainland Europe. The target is to have £1bn under management in three years and £3bn in five years. European Wealth is 15 months old and it has £155m under management.
European Wealth made a start-up loss of £1m in 2011. There are significant fixed costs in the business, particularly due to the costs of regulation, and once revenues get past £2m the business should move into profit and this profit will rise sharply as additional revenues are added.
European Wealth is already widening its operations through a fixed investment service offered by investment operation European Investment. Nigel Marsh, formerly of Epic Asset Management and New Star, will establish the new operation.
A subscription is raising £700,000 at 0.75p a share, although it is dependent on shareholder approval. Shares will be issued at the same price to satisfy a £24,000 debt. Courvoisier and Rod Gentry are two of the subscribers. Courvoisier will own 21.5% of Kingswalk, Rod Gentry 10.4% and John Morton 5.9%. Non-executive director Tim Revill is subscribing for shares through Hearth Investments and his stake will be 10.6%.
At 0.78p a share, Kingswalk is valued at £1.44m.
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