Caledonia Investments knows all about managing private wealth. Small wonder that a bet on the sector has paid off for the Cayzer shipping family’s investment vehicle.
On Tuesday, the FTSE 250-listed investment trust announced the sale of its majority stake in Seven Investment Management to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The deal puts a reported enterprise value of about £450mn on the business. It has made an annualised return of about 15 per cent since 2015 when it bought the company from insurers Zurich Insurance and Aegon.
7IM — named after its seven founders — has grown over the past eight years with the help of four acquisitions. It has more than doubled assets under management to £21bn and increased profitability by bearing down on costs. The price is below the sum that was reportedly offered by bidders before last year’s market downturn. Nonetheless, it is a premium of more than a third to the sector’s average multiple of 14 times current earnings.