Standard Life buys Newton's wealth business

The Newton division has assets under management of £3.6bn

Discretionary fund manager Standard Life Wealth (SLW) is to buy Newton Management's private client division in a deal worth up to £83.5m.

SLW said the transaction was expected to more than triple its discretionary assets.

Newton's private client arm has assets under management of £3.6bn.

The transaction is expected to complete within seven months, subject to approval by regulators and deal conditions being satisfied.

It accelerates Edinburgh-based Standard Life's ambitions in the retail investment market.

Newton's private client business has about 3,000 UK and international high net worth and ultra high net worth clients and has strong distribution links with accountants and solicitors.

'Unique opportunity'

All 79 directly-employed Newton private client staff will transfer to Standard Life.

SLW chief executive Richard Charnock said: "This acquisition complements SLW's impressive growth to date and provides us with a unique opportunity to accelerate our onshore and offshore strategy.

"We are bringing together additional skills, clients and assets to create a discretionary wealth manager of significant scale and market presence."

London-based Newton, a global investment management subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, also has offices in Edinburgh, Leeds and New York.

As of December, it had assets under management of nearly £50bn.