More than £350 million of funds under management have been transferred to an ambitious new Dundee investment house.
Thorntons Investment Management Limited (TIML) has taken over responsibility for funds previously administered by long-established north-east legal partnership Thorntons.
While the two businesses share a name, have some of the same shareholders and are both based in Whitehall House at Yeaman Shore, TIML has been launched as a new limited company entirely separate from the Thorntons limited liability partnership.
The new operation is headed by chief executive Stephen Webster, who joined Thorntons Law as a partner three years ago, and chief investment officer Matt Strachan, who spent more than a quarter of a century with Alliance Trust before moving to his new employer last year.
A team of more than 20 Thorntons staff have also transferred over to the new entity to support the fledgling company’s growth.
Mr Webster said establishing the foundations for TIML had taken a significant period of time, and the new company then had to seek client approval for the proposed funds transfer.
“The planning process through the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) takes a heck of a lot of time, and we were in the planning stages for a good 18 months,” he said.
“We received final approval in July of last year and then we had to put the structures in place.”
Mr Webster said the change was a practical one as Thorntons Law had two regulatory masters, while the separate businesses would only be answerable to a single watchdog each.
“It makes much more sense for our business and for the law firm to have one regulator,” he said.
“We have the FCA, and the law firm has the Law Society of Scotland, and the efficiencies around the appliance of regulation are much better.
“The second reason is, and I am not shy about saying it, how ambitious we are about our plans.
“If you are going to launch a series of funds then that comes with a capital equity requirement stipulated by the FCA. It is easier for me to generate that capital from a separate entity rather than putting that liability on the law firm.
“It makes it easier then to operate and develop and grow that business.
“Clearly Thorntons Law LLP remain ambitious and continue to look at ways of expanding their business, but it is easier if the two are separated.”
The new company will operate under two main brands Thorntons Investment and Thorntons Wealth and Mr Webster said the transfer over of circa £350m in funds under management provided it with a “great foundation from which to grow a multi-faceted investment business”.
He also said it was good for Dundee to boost its profile in the fund management arena, and he hoped TIML would eventually become a recognised industry name in its own right.
“I think there will come a point in the not too distant future where we will outgrow the space we occupy at Whitehall House, and it may be that we move to larger premises,” he said.
“But our business will be in Dundee and always will be in Dundee as long as I am in charge of it,” Mr Webster added.