Brooks Macdonald snaps up Cornelian AM for £39m

Brooks announces £30m placing to finance deal

Brooks Macdonald has bought Edinburgh-based wealth and asset manager Cornelian Asset Managers for a fee of up to £39m.

In a stockmarket announcement, Brooks said it had acquired 100% of Cornelian's issued share capital from its shareholders, which include senior management. It paid an initial sum of £31m - £22m in cash and £9m in Brooks shares - with up to a further £8m payable "depending upon Cornelian meeting certain pre-agreed performance targets relating to the retention and growth of client assets as well as the realisation of cost synergies". Brooks also announced an equity raising of around £30m to finance the deal, which is expected to complete in Q1 2020, subject to regulatory approval. Co...