AssetCo, the asset and wealth management business chaired by Martin Gilbert, is restructuring its share ownership and changing its name to River Global.

Shares in its two main business interests, River Global and Parmenion will be traded on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

The proposal involves the reorganisation of the company’s share capital into new A and B shares.

A circular will shortly be sent to shareholders who will vote on the proposals at a general meeting on 6 March at Shoosmiths in London.

Mr Gilbert, executive chairman, said: “The share reorganisation will benefit the company and shareholders as the new share structure better reflects the value proposition of the company’s two separate and distinct business interests, River Global and Parmenion.

“It is anticipated that this will enable a more consistent valuation of the company in the mid-term as well as making the company’s shares more attractive.”

The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions.

In a trading update the firm said Assets under management increased from the £2.372 billion reported at the end of June to £2,779 bn as at the end of September 2024.

This includes more than £100m of new business wins reported into the Company’s UK Opportunities Fund (an open-ended collective investment scheme managed and marketed by the Company) in June 2024, which funded over the course of May 2024.

It also includes the successful launch of one of the two joint ventures we referenced in June 2024, being the initiative to bring a leading fund manager to market.

Unaudited results for the year ended 30 September 2024 show an operating loss of £2.9m (after adjusting for discontinued operations and exceptional items) and an overall loss of £4m.

Overall, flows for the River Global group to the end of September 2024 remained positive from the last reporting period to the end of March 2024, and markets also contributed positively.

The group was notified in October that it had been appointed to manage a substantial mandate for a UK institution with funding for that mandate due to take place in March 2025. This win was not included in its budget planning and would therefore have made a positive contribution in the year ahead.

Unfortunately, the group was terminated as manager in December by a US institution for whom the group has managed two portfolios for some six years. The assets under management (c.£200m) and revenues (c.£1m) relating to the UK and US institutions essentially offset each other leaving the group no worse but no better off on an on-going basis as a result.

Asset management headwinds

Headwinds continue to batter the active equity asset management industry with some £16bn in outflows from UK Equity fund products alone in the year to end November.

The group said it is not immune to this and has seen some £193m of additional outflows in the first quarter of the new financial year which requires further management action in order to keep us on the track towards profitability that we signalled above.

The company’s project to consolidate back-office service providers has been delayed from the target it had set to deliver around its financial year end but is otherwise progressing well and is now expected to deliver in the first quarter of the 2025 calendar year. The synergies associated with that project remain on track albeit with a later starting point.

Parmenion acquired EBI Portfolios in September 2022 and together the two companies had assets under management or advice of £11.7bn as at 31 March 2024 which compares favourably to £10.6bn at the same time in the previous year.

Operating profit for the combined businesses was £15.5m at their December 2023 year end which again compares favourably to the previous year’s result of £11.9m. Revenue generated by the combined businesses over the year to end December 2023 amounted to £48.6m. Overall, EBITDA more than tripled in the three years to end December 2023.