Gresham House to be taken over by Searchlight Capital in £470m deal

Asset manager Gresham House has agreed to be taken over by US investment firm Searchlight Capital in a £470m deal.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Searchlight will pay 1,105p per share in cash. This represents a premium of around 63% to the closing share price on Friday.

Chairman Anthony Townsend said: "Since the management buy-in in 2014, Gresham House has been transformed into a leading specialist alternative asset manager. Today's offer delivers shareholders a 4x return over this period. The Gresham House board believes that it represents a compelling opportunity in the current challenging economic environment for shareholders to realise, with certainty, Gresham House's potential for long-term future value creation.

"The acquisition by Searchlight starts a new and exciting chapter for Gresham House. We are confident that Searchlight will accelerate our international and domestic growth strategy and their long-term capital and global expertise will support and enhance our investment teams' ability to deliver returns to clients."

At 1105 BST, Gresham House shares were up 55% at 1,056.26p.