M&G completes acquisition of Royal London’s Ascentric

Investment management firm M&G has completed its acquisition of Royal London Group’s Ascentric platform, following FCA approval of the change in control.

The deal, which was first agreed in May, sees M&G acquire £15.5 billion of assets under management. Digital wealth management platform Ascentric also brings 1,500 adviser customers who act on behalf of over 90,000 individual underlying customers.

The acquisition is part of M&G’s growth strategy as it looks to expand its services for financial advisers and their clients ahead of a concerted push in the UK’s wealth market. Ascentric will complement and strengthen M&G’s status in the UK savings market, where the company foresees a continued growth in demand for advice and investment solutions.

Ascentric will give M&G the ability to offer third-party discretionary fund management services, individual savings accounts (ISA), self-invested personal pensions (SIPP), as well as general investment account (GIA) wrappers via a single system.

Ascentric CEO Rob Regan will continue to lead the business and will work as part of the Customer & Distribution team headed by M&G Chief Customer & Distribution Officer David Macmillan.

Ascentric was acquired by Royal London in 2007. In 2017, former Royal London chief executive Phil Loney said that the business was not for sale. However, this changed when Loney was succeeded by Barry O’Dwyer, who sought to overhaul the pension and insurance firm.

Regarding the sale of Ascentric, O’Dwyer said: “I reviewed our plans for the core business and Ascentric. My view was Ascentric could find a better home outside of the group. It will attract more ongoing investment with M&G than Royal London because we’ve been investing in our core proposition, and we can see that continuing.”

“There shouldn’t be any immediate change for advisers. Royal London will continue to provide services to Ascentric while M&G stand up their services. Day one nothing changes, but after that what happens is obviously up to M&G.”

O’Dwyer says that Royal London has no further plans to sell off other parts of its business. The company’s focus, O’Dwyer says will be on improving technology in its core pension business.


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