Irish move for Brewin Dolphin with £31.5m swoop for Tilman

The British firm said the collapse of the Irish banking establishment had only made demand for the services it could provide stronger, and it expected to grow the newly-acquired business in terms of both staff and funds under management.

Brewin Dolphin executive chairman Jamie Matheson said: "(Tilman's] business is one of the best in Ireland, with a close affinity to ours.

"We are very excited about the prospect of capitalising on what we perceive as a big opportunity in Ireland."

Dublin-based Tilman invests for Irish clients but less than 10 per cent of its funds are reliant on domestic markets.

Tilman's principal activity is discretionary private client fund management similar to that of Brewin Dolphin. It manages about €917m (807m), invested internationally, and made profits of €1.5m in the year to 31 March.

The firm has six investment managers and ten support staff all of whom will continue to be employed by the renamed Tilman Brewin Dolphin.

Under the terms of the takeover, owners of the Irish business will be paid an initial 18.3m, with up to a further 13.2m payable in December 2014 based on the performance of Tilman. All payments will be in Brewin Dolphin shares.

The two businesses will make "significant synergies" from integrations after 2014.

Tilman was founded in 1995 by its main shareholder Ray Tilson, who will remain managing director.

He said the buy-out would create "one of the top investment management companies in Ireland".

Brewin Dolphin is one of the largest independent private client investment managers in the UK, with funds under management recently reaching 25 billion.

Last week it announced a "major review" of its operations and activities aimed at improving its margin, which at 17 per cent is significantly below that of some of its rivals.

The deal was well received by analysts but created no excitement in the markets, with Brewin's share price showing little change.

David McCann, an analyst at Numis, said the deal seemed "sensible".

"It also potentially gives the company scope to grow in to a new geography whilst leveraging some of its existing back office in time, although there is clearly the risk of now trying to grow in Ireland too quickly through expensive acquisitions, which we hope will not be the case," he said.

Numis recently moved to a positive recommendation on Brewin in light of its moves to improve margin.

McCann said the Tilman acquisition looked like another positive "break from the past."