Walker Crips pays £4.2m to buy London discretionary firm

Walker Crips has acquired wealth firm Barker Poland Asset Management (BPAM) in a deal which will add £230m to its assets under management.

The acquisition, for which Walker Crips will pay an initial consideration of up to £4.2m, will see five BPAM team members join the stockbroker and wealth manager. These include managing director Geoff Wright and founder Pat Barker, who will continue as chairman of BPAM. The London-based wealth management business produced a profit attributable to members of £564,000 in the year to 31 March 2014, according to Walker Crips. It added that £192m of BPAM’s £229m in AUM is managed on a discretionary basis. The deal will increase Walker Crips’ own AUM by 12.5% to £2bn. "This is an impo...