Independent corporate finance and investment advisory firm, specialising in smaller quoted and larger unquoted companies
29 April 2010
Merchant Capital is a financial services company based in the City of London which offers a broad range of corporate advisory and broking services together with private wealth management and institutional investment management services.
Merchant Capital will manage all the blue chip backed structured products issued by Keydata and Dawnay Day Quantum together with some products issued by a small number of independent plan managers.
Following the transfer, Merchant Capital will take on the responsibility for the management of plans including the processing of income payments (from May 2010), surrenders and maturities. The new arrangement with Merchant Capital will mean that the administration of client plans will now be undertaken by Pritchard Stockbrokers Limited (Pritchard, a firm authorised and regulated by the FSA) on behalf of Merchant Capital.
Pritchard is a well-established private client investment management and stockbroking business with its head office in Bournemouth and ten branches throughout the UK.
While every effort will be made to effect a smooth transition to the new manager, in order to achieve a clean cut-off and to ensure the integrity of the migration of data to the Merchant Capital systems, there may be a short period where any surrender requests, ad hoc valuation requests or requests for any other changes may be subject to a short delay as information is double-checked. Merchant Capital advises Keydata clients that payment of maturity proceeds in relation to three Keydata managed plans due to mature during the last week of April will also be subject to a short delay while the details of investors are verified in this transitional phase. Merchant Capital assures clients that their investments are not at risk.
Merchant Capital aims to keep any delay to a minimum and apologises in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. If you need to contact the new team at Merchant Capital, they can be contacted by telephone on 0207 332 2218, by fax on 0207 332 2201 or by email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit http://www.merchantcapital.com/our-services/structured-products
Merchant Capital will be writing to IFAs and all planholders advising them of the change in the on-going administration of their plans as soon as possible after completion of the transfer.
Merchant Capital will not be taking on the management of any Keydata products backed by SLS, Lifemark or Hometrak. Keydata’s administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, will retain responsibility for these and any on-going queries in relation to them should continue to be referred to them.
Merchant Capital recently took on the plan management business of Arc Capital and Income plc and the take on of the Keydata plans complements this business. Keydata planholders will benefit from the experience of Merchant Capital’s existing team and Merchant Capital looks forward to providing them with a period of stability after recent uncertainties.
A spokesman at Merchant Capital Capital commented,
“Merchant Capital is delighted to be taking on the Keydata structured product book and is looking forward to working with clients who hold Keydata managed products and their advisers in the future.
Merchant Capital’s philosophy is to offer a range of attractive and innovative structured products providing either income or capital growth both to individual investors and institutions.
There is a place in this market for independent product providers and Merchant Capital is excited to be growing its position as a provider of innovative but straightforward structured products offering investors a real alternative to other offerings in the market.”
For further information please contact:-
Merchant Capital 0207 332 2205
Broker Team
18 January 2010
Will launch with Spanish Firm Tressis SV as First Investment Fund Client
Merchant Capital Ltd. has launched a UCITS III umbrella structure that will provide hedge fund managers, including small- to mid-sized firms, with a seamless and cost- effective vehicle for running their own UCITS III funds.
Merchant Capital bucks the trend of the few firms that offer a UCITS umbrella by enabling a faster route to market for managers. Historically, it has taken between three and six months to construct and bring to market a UCITS product. Funds using Merchant Capital will take approximately four to six weeks, while also significantly reducing the high fees the process normally incurs and fulfilling all necessary counterparty requirements.
Tressis SV (“Tressis”), Spain’s leading independent distributor of investment funds, structured products, fixed income and other financial products, has selected Merchant Capital as its UCITS III umbrella provider. The company is due to launch a European equity long/short strategy on the platform. Tressis SV has over €1.7 billion of assets under distribution, of which €600 million are under direct advisory contracts. Tressis has an extensive network of IFAs throughout Southern Europe and Latin America.
Commenting on the launch, José Miguel Maté, CEO of Tressis SV, said:
“Merchant Capital was selected on the basis of being able to deliver exactly what was required for Tressis’s first venture into UCITS funds, including meeting a tight deadline for launch.”
Hedge fund managers using Merchant Capital will not be required to pay a standard minimum entry fee and will also benefit from significantly reduced legal and administrative costs. The UCITS III umbrella structure will also allow the manager the freedom to seek competitive SWAP rates in the market place and take advantage of competitively-priced agreements in place with some of the market’s leading providers.
Additionally, the company will enable investors and managers alike to reduce the counterparty exposure inherent in partnering with a single institution; a manager using an existing platform offering the full range of services under one roof can be subject to significant counterparty risk.
Merchant Capital will supply hedge fund managers with all the controls and systems required to manage a UCITS III fund. As well as risk management and middle office support, Merchant Capital also provides company management, regulatory infrastructure and compliance oversight.
An independent board of trustees is to be provided, along with an independent administrator, custodian, accountant and oversight of all legal documents. Merchant Capital, however, does not at this point supply feeder capital like an incubation platform. The firm simply offers a solution through which clients can seamlessly manage their UCITS III product, while the necessary operational and compliance support is provided by Merchant Capital.
The co-founders of the asset management division of Merchant Capital are Christopher Day and George Cadbury. Christopher Day, Director of Merchant Capital, was previously a founding partner and Chief Executive of PCE Investors, a business responsible for analysing and establishing over 40 hedge funds whilst providing all middle and front office systems and regulatory cover. He has been an investment manager for over 20 years, with high level experience of management in a wide range of investment areas. He was Managing Director of Thornton Management (Asia) Limited, Dresdner Bank’s Asian investment business. Responsible for both investment and marketing, Christopher Day was instrumental in the business’s rapid growth in assets and by 1997 the business managed $2 billion in seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
George Cadbury, Director of Merchant Capital, was previously President and Head of Business Development at PCE Investors Limited and prior to that Managing Director of the UK business of Ubequity Capital Partners, a Canadian private equity group, where he headed a hedge fund marketing operation as well as being responsible for Ubequity’s UK investments. He began his career at Banco Spirito Santo in Madrid.
The company will be working closely with PNC Global Investment Servicing, a leading provider of processing, technology and business solutions to the global investment industry, to provide its funds with administration, custody and trusteeship services.
Mark Mannion, Managing Director of PNC Global Investment Servicing
(Europe) Limited, said:
“Merchant Capital is providing a vital service to the fund industry to accommodate the specific demands of each individual fund. We look forward to providing them with a range of services that will enhance this initiative.”
George Cadbury, Director of Merchant Capital, added:
“Merchant Capital has created a solution to the many problems faced by managers in trying to access the UCITS market. Many traditional investors from all over the world are now indicating a preference to invest in a UCITS structure, but unless you are a multi-billion dollar fund the barriers to entry are high.”
For more information please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
About Merchant Capital
Merchant Capital has recently expanded its existing business significantly through acquisition, including new private wealth management and institutional investment management businesses. The expansion of its existing private client stock broking business now represents in excess of £300 million with a customer base of over 50,000. In the area of corporate advice, the group has added three experienced teams to supplement its existing expertise in the AIM Plus market. Corporate advisory is also complemented through the launch of Merchant’s first corporate recovery bond, which specialises in the provision of financing to corporations in need of short term capital, but not properly serviced by the banking sector.
Merchant Capital Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
About Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS III)
A UCITS structured fund gives investors minimum bi-weekly liquidity; daily pricing; assets held by a trustee, not an administrator or a prime broker; an independent fund board; higher standards of corporate governance and oversight; and a larger investor base.
14 January 2010
To date 3 deals have been completed. MCR has invested £102,000 for a 51% shareholding in a new holding company which in turn owns 100% of LM Logistics Limited (“LM”) and Syntex Logistics Limited (“Syntex”). LM is a warehouse and transport group founded in 1973 and based in Felixstowe; Syntex specialises in container haulage. MCR will also provide a £398,000 loan facility to the new group, secured against a first charge over its unencumbered assets, amounting to c£1m.
MCR has acquired a majority stake in a group of transport companies that operates bus services for local authorities. MCR have invested £200,000 for a 51% stake in a new holding company which has acquired 100% of the group and provided a working capital facility of up to £300,000.
MCR has granted a loan facility of £50,000 to a local radio group which has purchased five local radio stations out of receivership and plans to build a wider network. As part of the transaction, MCR has taken a 10% equity interest in the company. The facility is secured against assets and directors’ guarantees.
05 January 2010
A number of unexpected administrative and legal issues have arisen as part of the process of unwinding the administration arrangements relating to the business of Arc Capital and Income plc. As a result it has not yet proved possible to recommence either income payments or any other payments, such as maturities or early redemption requests.
Both Carter Backer Winter LLP, the administrators of Arc Capital and Income plc, and the Financial Services Authority are doing everything in their power to facilitate the process and we hope that the issues can be resolved in the near future so that funds can be transferred to Merchant Capital Limited, the new plan managers of the Arc Capital and Income plc plans, so that payments can be recommenced in the near future.
Please understand that your investment monies are safe and are held quite separately from those of Arc Capital and Income plc in administration.
04 January 2010
Merchant House Group plc (“Merchant House”) announces the creation of a new structured investment plan management business which will raise funds from the public via independent financial advisers (“IFAs”) to be invested in five year notes issued by established financial institutions.
These plans will be tailored in the form of structured products to meet the varied investment needs of investors, typically either for income or capital growth.
At the same time, Merchant House has taken over the administration of a portfolio of existing investment plans that had been previously marketed and administered by ARC Capital and Income Plc (“ARC”, now in administration), amounting in value to approximately £100 million subscribed by some 10,000 investors. Merchant House will provide continuing administrative services in relation to these plans and ensure the payment of interest and capital repayment to investors as they fall due, through its FSA regulated subsidiary Merchant Capital Limited (“Merchant Capital”). Merchant Capital has contracted the handling of investor funds to Pritchard Stockbrokers Limited, a well established South Coast firm of private client stockbrokers.
Merchant Capital will in the New Year launch new investment plans similar to those previously offered by ARC and has secured the services of experienced new staff to assist in the development of this business.
These arrangements ensure the continuing safe administration of existing investor funds and represents a significant new business opportunity for Merchant Capital.
Peter Redmond, Chief Executive of Merchant Capital said “Merchant Capital is pleased to have assisted in securing the position of existing investors and looks forward to offering similar opportunities to the existing investor base and the wider investment community.”
Martin Eberhardt, Chairman of Merchant House said, “We believe this represents a sizeable new business opportunity for the Group. It will develop alongside other recent Group initiatives within investment promotion and administration.”
In addition to the new arrangements, Merchant House Group has purchased £70,000 of structured investments which will mature over the next five years.
30 June 2009
Merchant Capital has raised in excess of the minimum fundraising requirement of £500,000 in the first tranche of sales of corporate bond units in Merchant Corporate Recovery Plc (“MCR”). It is intended to raise a maximum of £2,000,000 by way of subscription at a price of £2,000 per unit. Sales of the units, each of which gives the holder £1,975 of 9.75% redeemable bonds and 2,500 ordinary shares, are continuing.
MCR will provide finance to selected distressed companies which have significant turnover and a strong debtor book and/or easily realizable assets. To minimize the risk of the investment a first charge will generally be taken over the debtors book and fixed assets of these companies. MCR will, at the same time as granting the facility, look to take a substantial perhaps majority equity stake in the companies. It is planned to realize the value of these equity stakes, either through a trade sale or through floatation.
20 March 2009
Merchant House Group plc is taking a 49% stake in a new venture aimed at bringing Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysian companies to the London market.
The new company, Merchant Capital Pte Ltd (MCPL), based in Singapore and which will trade in the region as Merchant Capital Singapore, has already a number of potential clients involved in computer manufacturing, hotel television content, education and food distribution to explore the possibility of their listing on PLUS.
Merchant House Group will own 49% of MCPL, a new company with minimal issued share capital and the balance of 51% will be held by the local management team. MCPL will be managed by Adam Chan and Tony Sanichara, who bring extensive corporate finance experience ranging from venture capital to M&A management as well as an invaluable knowledge of the Asian market. It is envisaged that MCPL will introduce business to MHG’s corporate finance business, Merchant Capital, in London.
Tony Sanichara, Director of MCPL, said: ‘In two years, the Singapore small cap market (SESDAQ) will be changing. There are over 150 companies listed on this exchange which will need to seek admission to the main board or secure a sponsor for the CATALIST board the new, sponsor supervised successor to SESDAQ, and is part of the Singapore Stock Exchange. This might prove a barrier for some of the smaller, fast growing companies currently on SESDAQ’.
MHG Chairman, Martin Eberhardt, said: ‘We see this as the next important step in the restructuring and consolidation of the group. MCPL will see opportunities in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia where access to the London capital markets will provide alternatives for fast growing companies in these competitive markets.’
The establishment of MCPL is the latest in a series of recent moves initiated to broaden the corporate services provided by Merchant House Group by utilising its new business model which has been devised to increase revenue and operating margins through revenue sharing partnerships that will function on a low cost basis.
Within the past few weeks, MHG has also announced its link with Merchant Legal LLP and the formation of Merchant Wealth Management Ltd, together with the restructuring of the corporate finance activities of Merchant Capital. Last week, the company announced a fundraising in order to build a broking and fundraising business.
Along with Merchant House Finance Ltd, a leasing and asset finance joint venture of which MHG holds 49%, the group is now positioned to offer full cycle finance services ranging from fund-raisings and PLUS listings as corporate advisors, through to wealth realisation and management.
31 January 2009
AIM-quoted Merchant House Group (MHG) is pleased to announce the formation of Merchant Wealth Management Limited, to introduce wealth management services to its own corporate and, in future, private clients. The new company is 100% owned by MHG.
It marks the latest in a series of moves to broaden the corporate and merchant banking services provided by MHG, using a new business model devised to increase revenue and operating margins through revenue sharing partnerships that will function on a low cost basis.
This development means that Merchant Wealth Management can introduce the private clients of the Group to major providers of pensions, business and private insurances, asset management, trust and estate planning and immediate needs annuities. Paul Hassall FCII, CeMAP joins the board of Merchant Wealth Management. Paul brings 26 years experience including with Royal and Sun Alliance Group and as a partner in St James Place Wealth Management
The creation of Merchant Wealth Management follows two other new moves announced earlier this month – the creation of Merchant Legal to provide commercial legal services to clients, and the strengthening of MHG’s corporate finance division with the recruitment of senior corporate financiers. Like Merchant Wealth Management, both of those divisions will operate on a revenue-sharing basis.
MHG Chairman Martin Eberhardt said, ‘We see Merchant Wealth Management as another strong example of our new approach, seeking to maximise the cross-selling opportunities deriving from our corporate finance and broking activities. We look after corporate clients that are looking for a fund-raising or listing, and it is clear the directors might also be thinking of their own personal wealth issues.’
An existing client base for the services of Merchant Wealth Management may also stem from the activities of Merchant House Finance, which arranges leasing and asset finance for private jets, race horses and yachts.
Along with Paul Hassall, Richard Smith, Matthew Hassall and Julie Roberts are also supporting the services available through Merchant Wealth Management.
24 January 2009
AIM-quoted Merchant House Group plc announces two senior appointments to drive the development of its corporate finance division, Merchant Capital.
Nicolas Greenstone (63) is a solicitor and the proprietor of Barton Brown Limited, an FSA authorised corporate finance firm which specialises in raising equity finance for pre-IPO companies and taking them to market. During a previous legal career he led corporate finance transactions with an aggregate value of more than £3 billion and was involved in more than 30 flotations.
Lord Razzall, (64) who is the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Trade and Industry, has more than 35 years experience in corporate finance and M & A activity and is the founder of Argonaut Associates, which provides management, financial and
corporate advisory services to owner managers and corporate entities. Like Mr Greenstone, he has also chaired several quoted companies, and he was awarded the title of European Lawyer of the Year in 1992.
The appointments mark the second step in a major reshaping to provide a broadened range of complementary Merchant Banking services to corporate and private clients. MHG has already announced the establishment of Merchant Legal to offer corporate and commercial legal services, and foreshadowed further moves
in the weeks ahead.
Like other divisions within the restructured Merchant House Group, Merchant Capital will operate on a revenue-sharing basis. The model is intended to provide a strong performance incentive without the costs of salaries or significant overheads.
MHG Chairman Martin Eberhardt said, ‘We are delighted that Nicolas and Tim have agreed to help drive Merchant Capital as part of our refocusing. Merchant Capital will undoubtedly benefit from their extensive experience and City connections. The business will now focus on more established and lower risk
opportunities and as a result we are confident of seeing a higher proportion of deals through to completion.’
21 January 2009
AIM-quoted Merchant House Group plc is pleased to announce its association with the independent law firm Merchant Legal LLP as the first step in a major programme to broaden its range of services and boost operating margins by offering more services to the same clients.
Merchant Legal LLP will offer corporate and commercial legal services to Group clients and eventually to other clients.
It will be overseen by Alan O’Doherty, Sadhana Soni and Alan Gogbashian. Prior experience between them includes Herbert Smith and Clifford Chance amongst others.
Like other new units planned by Merchant House as part of the reshaping programme, it will operate on a revenue-sharing basis. This is in line with Group policy of heavily incentivising the teams and not therefore being responsible for salaries or significant overheads.
Alan O’Doherty, Senior Partner of Merchant Legal LLP said, ‘We welcome our association with Merchant House Group PLC and I believe that by offering legal services to Merchant House clients, they will enjoy high standards of service and receive advice tailored specifically to their requirements.’
Merchant House Chairman Martin Eberhardt said: ‘Over the next few weeks, we are intending to announce a series of other developments that will fit alongside one another to complement our existing corporate finance services. Building from our current foundations, we aim to broaden our client base, develop a stronger fund-raising capability, and continue to reduce overheads while maintaining high levels of service to our clients.’
Merchant House has already established an early joint-venture, Merchant House Finance Ltd, set up to provide clients with leasing and asset finance services. It intends to position all its new operations as complementary to its core activity of identifying under-valued, small cap investment opportunities.
18 December 2008
Merchant House Group plc (“MHG” or the “Group”), the AIM-quoted corporate finance and services group, is today pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Merchant Capital plc, has become a member of the London Stock Exchange (“LSE”).
MHG provides a broad range of corporate finance services and funding options to growing entrepreneurial enterprises with Merchant Capital as the appointed financial adviser to a number of AIM quoted companies.
The successful application to be a member of the LSE will now further extend the range of services offered by the group, with Merchant Capital providing broking services to its growing client base.
Peter Redmond, Chief Executive of MHG, said: “This represents another important step forward in the development of Merchant House Group. Over the past three years we have assisted a number of AIM companies to raise funds but to date these clients have been unable to retain us to provide a continuing broking capability. This situation no longer applies, and we are delighted that we now have the opportunity to extend such services to existing and new clients. This success completes the developments we had planned for 2006 and the foundations in place should enable us to grow the business strongly next year.”
Merchant Capital Limited
Aldermary House
10-15 Queen Street
London EC4N 1TX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7332 2200