Cazenove sets £1bn target to triple Scots assets

CAZENOVE Capital Management, the wealth manager, is aiming to treble the size of its Edinburgh office over the next three to five years as it takes advantage of "tectonic" shifts in the fund management market north of the Border.

Cazenove gained a presence in Scotland last December when it acquired Thornhill, the private client business spun out of Martin Currie in 2003, which had offices in Edinburgh and London. The acquisition added more than 600 million of assets under management to Cazenove's total of 14.5 billion. The Edinburgh office, which employs 12 people, manages assets of around 350m.

Andrew Ross, chief executive of Cazenove, said the firm is eyeing 1bn of assets under management in Scotland before 2015.

"We would like the Edinburgh office to be at least three times the size on a three to five year view and we think we can achieve that," he told Scotland on Sunday during a visit to the Scottish capital last week.

"The Edinburgh market is extremely competitive but there are some quite big movements of the tectonic plates up here."

Many firms predominantly based south of the Border are keeping a close eye on opportunities to expand in the Central Belt following the financial crisis and taxpayer injections into the two main Scottish banks. Last autumn, eight fund managers at Bank of Scotland's private banking arm walked out to join Rensburg Sheppards, which was at the time a relatively new name in the Edinburgh wealth management market. Brooks MacDonald poached a high-profile investment team from Royal Bank of Scotland-owned Adam & Company last summer with ambitions of setting up its own capital operation, while Rathbone Brothers beefed up its presence in Scotland with the acquisition of a wealth management portfolio from BoS. Around 70 per cent of former BoS clients transferred to Rathbones following the agreement last October. Cazenove will also increase its staff at the Edinburgh office.

Sandy Dudgeon, who was previously managing director of Thornhill, has taken up the role of head of business development for Cazenove's private wealth operation.

Over the past two years, assets under management at Cazenove have grown by 23 per cent against a 9 per cent fall in the All Share Index.