AssetCo, the financial services consolidator founded and chaired by industry veteran Martin Gilbert, will ask shareholders to vote on the firm splitting and rebranding.
The proposals, revealed as part of a trading update published today (June 28), are for the core fund management business to rebrand as River Global, reflecting the name of the largest of the asset managers in the group, River and Mercantile.
The other asset within AssetCo is a 30 per cent stake in investment management and platform business Parmenion.
Under the proposals, shareholders in AssetCo will be given separate shares in Parmenion, which will not be quoted on any stock market, and will retain their holdings in the River Global business, which will remain a listed company and contain the asset management businesses.
Shareholders are expected to receive information about this in the third quarter of 2024.
It said assets under management and advice at Parmenion were £11.7bn at the end of March, up from £10.6bn at the same time the previous year.
The update said: "These proposals will give every shareholder a second class of share which will be designed to reflect the
company’s economic interest in Parmenion.
"It is not expected that these shares will be traded on AIM but will be able to be traded on a matched bargain basis more suitable to the nature of the underlying interest. The company’s existing shares will as a result, track the interest in the equities business.
"In view of this, we are also planning to publish proposals to change the name of the company to River Global PLC."
AssetCo chairman Martin Gilbert said despite challenging market conditions he is confident the group will deliver savings by the end of the year.
He said: "The six months to end March 2024 has been a pivotal one in our journey towards profitability and cash generation.
"The work done in simplifying our business by consolidating equity asset management activities and exiting loss making and complex early stage businesses has helped clear a pathway towards profitability which, with continued hard work and effective execution of our cost saving plan, is starting to look eminently achievable.
"There remains a dependency on stable revenues but, in that context, it is particularly pleasing to note a couple of substantive and notable wins in UK equities with, finally, some tentative signs of improvement in market sentiment towards the asset class.
"Continuing revenues for the six months ended March 2024 of £6.9mn have held up relatively well in a turbulent period and the business, while still loss-making, has demonstrated real progress towards profitability, making excellent progress in cost cutting since last year."
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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