Jefferies stays at 'buy' on Gresham House after purchase of Appian

Analysts at Jefferies reiterated their 'buy' stance for shares of alternative asset manager Gresham House following news that it had acquired Irish asset manager Appian.

The €330m of assets under management the acquisition would bring with it would take Gresham's AuM to a total of £3.6bn and add €0.4bn of normalised annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.

It would also boost Gresham's medium-term return on invested capital past 15%.

Looking past the numbers, the purchase of Appian would also extend the firm's reach in the Republic of Ireland and the European Union, giving it an international presence, Jefferies argued.

Gresham already had a presence in RoI, managing forests for a large institutional client.

"Appian already manages forestry and other real assets, as well as having a smaller companies listed equity product, so the capability set is also well-matched."