Aubrey Capital Management (Aubrey), the Edinburgh and London based specialist investment manager, and LarrainVial, one of the largest financial services groups in Chile, said on 16 January that the holding company which controls LarrainVial Asset Management had reached an agreement on the latter acquiring a 25% stake in Aubrey.

The deal is set to conclude in the coming days, subject to final reviews by lawyers in the UK and Chile.

The transaction supports Aubrey’s enduring commitment to deliver actively managed portfolios for its clients. Aubrey will remain a majority employee-owned business and its main shareholders and founders will remain in the business. The firm will retain its Edinburgh head office, with an additional office in London.

This is an important agreement for LarrainVial, as it will facilitate the business strengthening its capabilities in emerging markets, thanks to the expertise of Aubrey and its team, the statement further said.

The agreement also opens opportunities for LVAM and Aubrey to expand their strategies into new markets, broadening the client base for both businesses.

Ladislao Larrain, chief executive officer of LarrainVial Asset Management, said: "It is very important for us to participate in the ownership of Aubrey, as it allows us to approach new markets and strengthen our international presence with a leading fund manager with almost 20 years of experience and an expert team in Emerging Markets."

Andrew Ward, chief executive officer of Aubrey Capital Management, said: “This is an extremely positive step for both firms that will result in a sharing and deepening of investment expertise and better access to distribution capability in the UK, US, Latin America and Europe.”

“Aubrey’s strengths in areas such Emerging Market Equities is focused on active management and bottom-up stockpicking with a commitment to high active share. This means we can avoid index hugging and find the better opportunities in places such as India, China and beyond. This is an attractive strength for Latin American investors who may be already well served on their local market exposure by LarrainVial, but who are looking to diversify across the EM universe.”

“On the point of distribution, the partnership will facilitate synergies in channels that are important to both of us, such as the US institutional market, in addition to supporting access to each other’s existing distribution relationships. But of course, our own initial travels over the next couple of weeks will be to Chile, Peru and Colombia to meet long-term clients of LarrainVial, while we for our part look forward to welcoming further visits by our new partners to Edinburgh and London to meet our stakeholders.”

“This partnership is the right deal at the right time for both of us to leverage the sum of the parts, while reminding investors that active management has not gone away and in fact can thrive in boutique scenarios and deliver value.”

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has approved the transaction.