The transaction, which completed on 1^st September 2020 following JFSC regulatory approval, comprises c22% of share capital and fully exits Founder, James Painter, and Director, Lee Quemard, from the company. Staff equity participation has increased as a result of the deal and the ownership profile of the business has been recalibrated ahead of significant growth plans for 2021.

Tom Wiseman commented: “Notwithstanding a challenging macro-economic environment, 2020 is poised to be the most successful year in Enhance Group’s history. Therefore, it made perfect sense to orchestrate a shareholder buyout now, to put the ownership of the business in the hands of the employees that will be driving the company forward. Lyndon and I have invested alongside other members of staff, bringing the majority of share capital under the control of our team and thus reinforcing the independent and owner-managed culture that our clients buy into when employing Enhance”.

Earlier this year, the Group, which has private equity backing from TISE-listed Financial Services Opportunities Investment Fund, launched its proprietary investment oversight platform Mosaic; introducing more granular, sophisticated and customisable portfolio analytics at a point in time that coincided with the stock market turmoil created by Covid-19.

Lyndon Trott noted: “As we all adjust to a pandemic-induced global recession, the importance of, and demand for, independent investment monitoring and advice naturally increases. Using our state-of-the-art software, Enhance is perfectly poised to provide comprehensive yet cost-effective and scalable intelligence to fiduciaries, family offices and charities. The future is very bright for Enhance and I’m delighted to be a part of this outstanding team, particularly as we look to expand further”.

L-R: Tom Wiseman, CEO, and Lyndon Trott, Chairman

This announcement is hot on the heels of Enhance’s sale of MPI, an investment manager subscription service providing peer grouping and analytics to STEP members, to remove any perceived conflicts of interest within the Group’s independent Monitoring, Portfolio and Consultancy services.

Read the MPI press release here.