Self-invested personal pensions (SIPP) provider Curtis Banks (CBP:AIM) is snapping up a £630 million book of business from rival European Pensions Management (EPM), which is in administration.
Bristol-based Curtis Banks is buying 5,000 SIPPs with assets under administration (AuA) of £630 million, according to a press release, taking its overall AuA close to £19 billion.
Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Including the costs of doing the deal, the impact on financial results for the year to 31 December 2016 will only be modest, a spokesperson told Shares.
Earlier this year, Curtis Banks more than doubled in size when it bought Suffolk Life from life insurer Legal & General (LGEN) for £45 million, gaining around £8.7 billion in AuA across 68,000 pension schemes.
Assets acquired from EPM will be administered through the new Suffolk Life unit.
'This acquisition, coming shortly after Suffolk Life joined the Curtis Banks Group, delivers a statement of the group’s commitment to grow our position in the independent SIPP market, and demonstrates our capability to support advisers and investors in sections of the market that many other SIPP operators have retreated from,' said Will Self, managing director at Suffolk Life.
House broker Peel Hunt said after full year results published in March it expected Curtis Banks to double sales in 2016 to around £34 million and deliver underlying earnings per share growth of around 50% to 15.8p, from 10.6p in 2015.
The forecasts include the impact of the Suffolk Life deal.
Shares in Curtis Banks trade 2.6% lower at 285p, valuing the business at £148 million.
