The parent company of JO Hambro Investment Management is to sell the majority of its shares to a financial services holding company – but will retain JO Hambro's entire charity client base.

Credit Suisse has agreed to sell 62.5 per cent of JO Hambro’s issued share capital for £50m to Bermuda National Ltd, with the balance to be owned by JO Hambro’s management and staff.

The acquisition remains conditional on Bermuda National receiving regulatory approval from the FSA, but this is anticipated by the end of June.

JO Hambro placed 33rd on Charity Finance’s Charity Fund Management Survey in 2012, up one from 34 after an 11 per cent increase in business on the year before. The firm manages £288m worth of charity funds as of June last year, spread across 92 clients.

Client base to remain, growth expected

Stephen Browne, marketing director at JO Hambro, told civilsociety.co.uk that with regards to the firm’s charity client base, “the plan is to keep everything exactly how it is”.

He continued: “The whole team is staying in place – same location [St. James’s Square, London], same fund managers, and the charity business will carry on growing as it has done.  

“We’ve been quite successful in the last two or three years, building up a nice portfolio of new charity clients. We plan to grow – hopefully employing more people and growing exponentially.”

Browne added that JO Hambro was likely to have a change or “tweak” of name in the future, but was under no pressure to do so just yet.
 
Last week, Schroders revealed plans to acquire rival investment manager Cazenove Capital in a £424m deal, which followed Newton's announcement in February that it was selling its private client business to Standard Life.