iimia announces MitonOptimal merger plans
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The merger will result in the formation iimia MitonOptimal plc and is subject to shareholder agreement at the Extraordinary General Meeting on 9 October 2007.
iimia is to pay for the multi-asset manager - which has some £360m funds under advice - through the issue of some 6,622,851 new ordinary shares of iimia and £1.9m in cash. It will mean iimia will hold no less than 95 per cent of the entire issued share capital of MitonOptimal.
The deal will see a number of board changes at iimia following the retirement of Sir Geoffrey Holland as a non-executive director and William Long moving from executive to non-executive chairman.
Meanwhile, MitonOptimal will be subject to lock-in terms with the firms joint managing directors Martin Gray and Scott Campbell joining the iimia board upon completion of the deal.
iimia Investment Group chief executive Mike Philips says: “The last few months have been a very active period for iimia. The proposed merger with MitonOptimal is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing and will increase the enlarged Group’s funds under management and advice to £1.2 billion. Prior to the acquisition of J K Miln & Company announced on 1 August 2007, iimia’s Funds Under Management and Advice stood at £672 million.
“We have, for some time, recognised the need to increase the scale of our business more quickly than organic growth would permit. The merger with MitonOptimal will increase significantly our multi-asset funds under management, strengthen our fund management resource, and extend the Group’s distribution capability. This should position the Group to benefit from significant developments in the UK pension fund market as well as extending our reach to overseas markets.”
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