Premier Miton and AssetCo eye bids for rump of River & Mercantile

(Alliance News) - Two London-listed peers on Tuesday confirmed making takeover approaches for River & Mercantile Group PLC.

Premier Miton Group PLC and AssetCo PLC both confirmed they initiated discussions with asset manager River & Mercantile, but both said any offer was conditional on River & Mercantile completing the planned sale of its Solutions business to Schroders PLC.

Late last month, River & Mercantile and Schroders said Schroders agreed to buy the business for GBP230 million. The Solutions arm is also known as the UK Advisory, Fiduciary Management & Derivatives business. It had GBP42 billion in assets under management as of September 30.

At the time, River & Mercantile said it planned to return the majority of the disposal proceeds to shareholders.

Premier Miton on Tuesday said it has not yet made a bid for the remainder of River & Mercantile, but it said any acquisition would be made through the issue of shares and depended on the Schroders deal going through.

"Any combination with River & Mercantile would be conditional on the successful completion of the proposed sale of its Solutions business to Schroders and the subsequent distribution of the net cash proceeds to River & Mercantile's shareholders," Premier Miton said.

AssetCo, which is chaired by Martin Gilbert, the co-founder of Aberdeen Asset Management, also confirmed its approach.

"The AssetCo directors believe that RMG Asset Management and AssetCo are highly complementary and that a combination of AssetCo and RMG Asset Management would create significant value for the combined group's clients, portfolio managers, employees and shareholders," it said.

Premier Miton and AssetCo have a December 21 'put-up-or-shut-up' deadline.

River & Mercantile shares were up 12% at 318.95 early Tuesday in London. It currently has a market capitalisation of GBP273 million.

Premier Miton was down 0.7% at 185.63p. It is valued at about GBP294 million.

AssetCo was untraded at 1,700.00p. It is has a market value of about GBP143 million. Gilbert has just under a 30% stake in AssetCo.

By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com

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