Invesco has agreed to sell intelliflo to global investment firm Carlyle in a deal worth up to $200m.
The transaction includes intelliflo’s US-based subsidiaries, including RedBlack, a provider of SaaS-based portfolio rebalancing tools and intelliflo Portfolio, a portfolio management software solution for US-registered investment advisers.
The purchase price is comprised of $135m at closing and up to an additional $65m in potential future earn outs.
Invesco originally purchased intelliflo in June 2018.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in London, intelliflo is a provider of cloud-based practice management software for UK-based independent financial advisers.
It offers an end-to-end software platform used by over 30,000 people at 2,600 advisory firms, supporting the management of approximately £450bn in client assets.
intelliflo’s platform delivers CRM, financial planning, client onboarding, compliance workflow and reporting functionality.
The transaction aims to strengthen intelliflo’s market-leading position in the UK and accelerate its growth in Australia.
As part of the deal, intelliflo’s US-based subsidiaries will be established as a standalone business called RedBlack, run by a separate management team.
It said this separation will allow both businesses to better serve and focus on their existing customers and markets.
intelliflo will focus on delivering market-leading software for the UK and Australian markets, while RedBlack will concentrate on advisers in the United States.
Equity for the investment will be provided by Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP), a €3bn fund which invests in technology companies across Europe.
Nick Eatock, CEO and founder of intelliflo, said: “This is an exciting moment for intelliflo.
“Carlyle’s investment reflects its trust in our business, and its deep experience in scaling software companies make it an ideal partner for our next phase of growth.
“With Carlyle’s support, we will continue to focus on delivering great value to our clients, with a renewed focus on building innovative solutions for the evolving needs of our core UK and Australian customer bases.”
Fernando Chueca, managing director in the CETP investment advisory team, said: “intelliflo is a mission-critical software provider to the UK’s wealth management ecosystem, with a deeply embedded and loyal customer base.
“We are excited to partner with Nick, Bryan and the team to unlock the company’s full potential and deliver a new stage of growth.”
Evercore served as financial adviser to Invesco and HSF Kramer acted as legal adviser.
Altman Solon, PWC, Oliver Wyman and Ringstone conducted due diligence on the acquisition, while Gibson Dunn acted as legal counsel to Carlyle.
Speaking about the deal to Money Marketing, FTRC founder Ian McKenna said: “In just over 20 years, intelliflo has grown from a buy out of an internal system within an adviser network to the largest player in the UK practice management market, with an end-to-end proposition that makes them suitable for just about all of an adviser’s needs.”
“Equally, they have repeatedly distinguished themselves by being happy to collaborate with other tech vendors long before it was the norm. The ownership issue has been hanging over them for some time so it is great to see it resolved, crucially, with the established management team retained.
“This will give them time to concentrate on key emerging issues for the financial advice market, including targeted support, simplified advice and Data Use and Access Act compliance.”
