The cut-price sale of WH Ireland’s wealth management division is on the brink of collapse after a group of investors including Hugh Osmond, one of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs, moved to block the deal.
Sky News has learnt that shareholders accounting for more than half of WH Ireland’s stock will vote against the £1m sale to Oberon Investments at a general meeting on Thursday.
The deal’s collapse will leave WH Ireland’s wealth arm, which has £830m of assets under management, facing an uncertain future.
WH Ireland declined to say how many clients the business has, but is expected to face searching questions about its handling of the process.
Money latest: ‘I want to create the Nike of lingerie’
City sources said on Wednesday that other buyers had expressed interest in acquiring the division, but said WH Ireland’s directors had made it clear that they would be unable to share material information about it with rival suitors – even after the Oberon deal had been rejected.
WH Ireland’s biggest shareholders, according to its website, include TFG Asset Management, which owns 29.9%, and Melvin Lawson, owner of a 9.7% stake.
Money blog: Gold hits massive new record; meet the former singer who turned Instagram into £17m lingerie business
Gold smashes past $4,000 per ounce but there is good reason to be worried
It’s now almost impossible to work your way to riches, says report into growing wealth gap
Mr Osmond, who owns a 9.9% stake in WH Ireland and is best-known for his role in building PizzaExpress into one of the UK’s biggest restaurant businesses, expressed fury at its board’s conduct.
“The directors have paid themselves huge bonuses while rinsing shareholders for every penny,” he said.
“After running the business utterly incompetently for years, they crowned their achievements by agreeing to sell the only remaining valuable part of the business for nothing.
“Shareholders deserve better.”
According to an announcement on 22 September, WH Ireland – which previously ranked among the City’s best-known small-cap investment banks – planned to sell the business and assets of its wealth management division for £1m.
It then intended to delist its shares from the junior AIM market and wind the rest of the company – which does not consist of any trading operations – down.
WH Ireland said in the same statement that it had considered a capital-raising to support the wealth management arm’s return to profitability but had judged this to be too difficult to execute.
“The transaction follows the disposal of the company’s Capital Markets division in July 2024 and reflects the board’s assessment of the future of the Wealth Management business and the continuing consolidation in the wealth management market,” the company said when it unveiled the deal to shareholders.
“In that context, the company has had strategic conversations with a number of potential counterparties.
“In some cases, these discussions have been prolonged and extensive and have led to advanced negotiations that have not come to fruition.”
One insider said other parties remained willing and able to hold swift negotiations about a deal, but had been prevented from doing so.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Read more from Sky News:
Car finance scandal payout details revealed
Why you should be worried by gold price milestone
The board of WH Ireland is chaired by Simon Moore, who also chairs LV Financial Services, the life insurance mutual.
Responding to an enquiry from Sky News, a WH Ireland spokesman said: “At this stage the proxy votes filed with the company’s registrars indicate that the resolutions will fail, but the actual outcome of the general meeting will not be known until the meeting has been held tomorrow.”
Sources said the company could be forced to release a stock exchange announcement about the Oberon deal on Wednesday.
