The board of River and Mercantile Group has reached an agreement with AssetCo for an all-share acquisition by the Martin Gilbert-chaired group.
Under the terms of the acquisition, RMG shareholders will be entitled to receive 0.07392 AssetCo new shares for each RMG share they hold.
Based on a closing price of 1,550 pence per AssetCo share, the acquisition values each RMG share at 114.6 pence, with the group's entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital valued at approximately £98.8m.
Alongside the acquisition, shareholders are also set to benefit from the recent sale of RMG's solutions arm to Schroders through a return of capital, which combined values the group's entire share capital at £289m.
Combined, this represents a share price of 334.9 pence, or a 59% premium to the share price on 9 August 2021, the day prior to the announcement by RMG that it had received a number of expressions of interest in its solutions division.
Following the completion of the acquisition, RMG shareholders will own approximately 41.6% of the combined group.
While RMG is currently home to just over £50bn in assets under management, £42bn of this is housed within the solutions division, which will leave the group purchase by AssetCo with approximately £8bn AUM.
James Barham, outgoing group chief executive at RMG who is set to join Schroders, said: "The proposed all-share acquisition of R&M by AssetCo plc, the terms of which are disclosed in the Rule 2.7 announcement issued this afternoon, has been unanimously recommended by R&M's Independent Directors.
"This transaction secures continuity of the environment and investment culture that has been a critical factor to the success of the business and provides stability and support as the business continues to invest for the future.
"It has been a great honour to lead a fantastic business and to work with such incredibly talented people. We are a people led business and it is the strength of those people that defines the strength of an organisation and we have been sustained in all that we do by loyal and enthusiastic clients".
