A pair of U.K.-based wealth managers, including one that counts AGF Management Ltd. as its largest shareholder, are in merger talks.
Responding to market speculation in the U.K., Toronto-based AGF announced that Smith & Williamson, a retail investment firm in the U.K. of which AGF owns about 30% (and accounts for two of its 10 board seats), is in merger talks with rival Tilney Group.
“While these discussions are ongoing, there can be no certainty these will lead to a transaction,” AGF said in a release, adding that it won’t make any further comment on the talks until there’s a definitive, binding deal between the firms.
In a statement of its own, London-based Tilney said that a merger of the two firms “would create a market-leading, integrated U.K. wealth management and professional services group with over £45 billion of assets under management.”