Brown Shipley extends capital presence

Private bank Brown Shipley has bolstered its Edinburgh presence with the acquisition of the investment management operation of Scottish law firm Gillespie Macandrew.

The deal will see Charles Fotheringham, who heads the Gillespie Macandrew investment team, joining Brown Shipley as a private client director.

Investment managers Robert Hunter and Colin Robertson, together with Keith Barron, who provides financial planning advice, will also move to Brown Shipley which established its Edinburgh office in 2008. The acquisition will take its funds managed from Edinburgh to more than £250 million.

Ian Sackfield, managing director, said the bank has begun looking for a new office and expects to recruit locally to support the new investment team.

He said: “With Charles Fotheringham and his team joining us, we have significantly strengthened our presence in Scotland.”

Ian Turnbull, Gillespie Macandrew’s managing partner, said: “The regulatory burden has grown significantly in recent years and is set to increase further, making it increasingly difficult for a firm of our size to offer clients the level of service in relation to investment matters that we would like to provide. In light of this, we felt our clients were best served being part of a larger organisation.”