Cheviot and Quilters in Merger Talks

There was surprise Wednesday morning in the offices of Cheviot that the story had leaked from Quilters that the venture capital house Bridgepoint are looking to add Cheviot to their purchase of Quilters earlier this year. The merger would add £4bn of assets at Cheviot to the £8bn that Quilters have creating a much bigger player in the wealth management space. But what is the implication for the Cheviot Climate Assets Fund?

Due Diligence has been done by Bridgepoint

In a conversation with Claudia Quiroz, fund manager of the Climate Assets Fund, she told Worldwise Investor that the due diligence process has been in full swing over the last few months in the Cheviot offices, but that it is still “very early stages and the Partners at Cheviot have not agreed any deal yet.”

Money Marketing reported that Bridgepoint bought Quilters for circa £180m from Morgan Stanley earlier in the year, which on a like for like basis might value Cheviot at around £90m. There are 44 members of the Cheviot Partners LLP registered at Companies House who will need to agree for any takeover to occur. Stephen Green heads the financial services team at Bridgepoint and is likely to be leading the deal which we speculate might involve some cash up front, with an equity stake in the combined business and most likely a seat on the Board for Michael Kerr-Dineen, Cheviot’s CEO. It will though involve a change in position for most of the Cheviot partners who would move from having a seat at the table to being employees with minority shareholder interests.

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