Intelli snapped up by Canaccord Adams in £4m deal

CORPORATE finance boutique Intelli, launched a decade ago by dealmakers Gordon Neilly and Colin Rutherford, has been sold to investment bank Canaccord Adams in a deal understood to be worth £4 million.

Canaccord, part of the Canadian Canaccord Capital group, is acquiring Intelli Partners and Intelli Corporate Finance, subsidiaries of Midas Capital since 2005. The deal extends Canaccord's services as well as providing it with a Scottish operation.

Chief operating officer Darren Ellis said establishing an office in Edinburgh was a key attraction of the deal. "There are lots of institutions in Scotland who we deal with and, indeed, a number who we'd like to deal with. Recruiting teams is cheaper, but we like the Intelli brand and the people and wanted to buy it as a whole."

Canaccord is paying Midas the value of Intelli's net assets, about 3.3m, plus an additional 1m for goodwill. Intelli chief executive Neilly said the deal would extend the firm's distribution platform.

Neilly, formerly of Ivory & Sime, teamed up with Rutherford at Rutherford Manson Dowds in the 1990s. RMD was sold to Deloitte & Touche in 1999 apart from the advisory and corporate finance business, which was rebranded and refinanced as Intelli, operating in Edinburgh and London. Rutherford is now chairman of Midas Capital. Neilly welcomed this second change of ownership. "The strength of Canaccord's market operations will bring significant benefits to our clients," he said.

Canaccord entered the UK in the 1990s, when it acquired boutique oil and gas advisory firm T Hoare & Co, a group founded by Tim Hoare, who remains as UK chief executive.

The group employs 120 staff in the UK and acts as broker to about 60 companies, mainly small and mid-cap oil and gas and mining companies.

Intelli is the retained financial adviser for 16 investment companies and over the past decade has been involved in more than 150 deals in the sector.

Canaccord Adams hired Giles Fitzpatrick, former chief executive of Fox-Pitt, Kelton, in June as part of efforts to boost its UK and European operations. at a time of market turbulence which it says has provided opportunities to build market share.