AXA has bought a financial services group with over £3bn of funds under advice.
Thinc Destini's shareholders, who have yet to approve the deal, will receive up to £70m in 2009, depending on financial performance. AXA has also agreed to provide £30m of working capital to the multi-channel advisory business.
Paul Evans, chief executive of Axa Sun Life, said: “AXA UK believes this is a very exciting development for both Axa UK and Thinc Destini which, under our ownership, should benefit from the operational management expertise and global distribution experience of the AXA group. Through this acquisition, we believe that AXA UK's core business will gain an additional source of shareholder value. We see the potential for significant growth in this area and we intend to pursue that growth aggressively.”
“Our intention is for AXA UK to run Thinc Destini as an independent advisory firm, separate from AXA UK's product provider businesses. We believe that this acquisition will help strengthen our overall UK market proposition by extending our offer to the provision of independent financial advice and planning services. This is consistent with our intention to grow our distribution capability and gain greater and closer access to our customers.”
Evans' counterpart at Thinc Destini, Simon Chamberlain, said: “I am delighted that AXA UK is looking to acquire Thinc Destini and our board has unanimously recommended all of our ordinary shareholders to accept the offer. The Thinc Destini board believes that this represents a good opportunity for us to build on the existing strengths of Thinc Destini under the ownership of AXA UK.”
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