Tavistock Investments has bought a 21% stake in adviser firm LEBC Group.
The firm has bought £10m worth of shares from Marie McVitie, the widow of LEBC founder and former CEO Jack McVitie. The firm said £6m will be paid upon completion of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, and the remaining £4m in 12 months' time aftet the deal is completed.
The deal, Tavistock added, will give the firm right of first refusal if any of the company's other shareholders want to sell any shares. BP Marsh & Partners, an AIM-listed company, is LEBC Group's largest shareholders and owns 60% of voting rights. Tavistock Investments is also an AIM-listed firm that has 175 advisers across the UK and around £4bn in assets under management.
LEBC Group has 46 financial advisers who look after 75,000 clients and around £5bn of their assets. Around 10% of those assets are invested in the firm's mode portfolio service.
The firm's draft accounts for the 2020/21 financial year, ending in September 2021, showed gross revenues of £15m and a predicted EBITDA of £3.3m.
LEBC managing director Derek Miles said: "We are delighted to welcome Tavistock as a shareholder within our rapidly growing business. We expect EBITDA to more than double this financial year and look forward to a long and successful partnership with Tavistock, to our mutual benefit."
Tavistock chief executive Brian Raven (pictured) added: "We look forward to working in close partnership with B. P. Marsh & Partners and with LEBC's management team. The initial focus will be on accelerating LEBC's commercial development and operational efficiency, as well as enhancing its oversight and compliance regime through the introduction of Tavistock's proprietary risk-based processes and procedures."
