What Tavistock Investments does:
Tavistock Investments is a UK asset management and financial advisory services business.
The company has 200 advisers that look after 50,000 clients and more than £3.5bn of investments.
The group provides compliance, administration and accounting services to independent financial advisers as well as wealth management, advice and financial planning to individuals.
Its fund management arm has 10 UCITS funds, including three protected model portfolios under the ACUMEN brand.
How it's doing
In March, the company received what it deemed an unwelcome bid approach from TEAM PLC, "a newly listed AIM company supported by a small group of former employees and disaffected shareholders".
The transaction proposed by TEAM, a recently floated cash shell, would see shareholders receive 1 new TEAM share for every 45 Tavistock shares owned.
At the time of the offer, it equated to 2p per Tavistock share, which was the level at which Tavistock shares were trading before the announcement.
In the following month, the company issued a trading update although it was restricted in the amount of information it could reveal because it is deemed to be in an offer period.
The firm did reveal, however, that gross revenues in the company's advisory business in the year to the end of March 2021 were in line with the previous financial year, at £24 million, of which roughly 80% is annualised recurring revenue.
In an observation clearly targeted at TEAM PLC, the board noted that recently reported mergers & acquisitions transactions in the sector have been conducted at a multiple of between 3 – 3.5 times recurring advisory revenue.
Tavistock's funds under management at the end of March have also remained similar to last year at about £1.1bn and the board, which continues to resist the bid approach from TEAM PLC, noted that investment management businesses have recently changed ownership at values equivalent to between 2% and 4% of funds under management.
The company received £2.1mln via the government’s coronavirus business interruption loan scheme CBILS as a precautionary measure but has not needed the money and plans to repay the CBILS loan as soon as circumstances properly permit.
Tavistock's new low-cost investment platform was launched in December 2020 and has been well received, the company said and is already attracting many new clients.
What the boss says: Brian Raven, chief executive
“The board believes that a sum of the parts valuation of the Tavistock businesses, based upon industry-standard matrices, would demonstrate that the true value of the company is several times higher than its current market capitalisation.”
“The board does not believe there to be any commercial logic or sufficient operational synergies that would justify a combination of the two businesses.
Inflexion points:
- Strong finish to the financial year
- TEAM PLC yet to make a formal offer for the company
- New investment platform gaining traction