Belfast pensions company changes hands for £4m

AIM-listed wealth management firm Mattioli Woods has expanded into the North with a £4.01 million (€.7 million) acquisition of Belfast-based firm SSAS Solutions.

The Belfast business, which is owned by Allison Chambers and Michael Galway, provides a specialist pension advisory service for the operation of small self-administered pension schemes (SSASs).

Ms Chambers and Mr Galway set up SSAS Solutions (UK) Limited in 2009. It employs 12 people and acts as the SSAS practitioner to 350 schemes throughout the UK, with some £380 million of assets under administration.

London-based Mattioli Woods, which employs 600 people and has assets under management totalling £8.8 billion. It will initially pay £2.51 million for SSAS, which includes £1.25 million in cash plus 162,654 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in Mattioli Woods.

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A further cash payment of up to £1.5 million will be made on the first and second anniversaries of the completion of the deal subject to certain financial targets being met.

Mattioli Woods plans to retain the SSAS Solutions management and “to enhance the team” as it creates a new administration hub for the group in Belfast.