Curtis Banks Group plc, one of the UK’s leading Self Invested Pension Plan (SIPP) providers with a portfolio of approximately 68,000 SIPPs, has expanded further.
The group, which employs approximately 500 staff in its offices in Dundee, Bristol, Ipswich and Market Harborough, has bought the SIPPs business of European Pensions Management Limited (EPM) from its special administrators for an undisclosed sum.
EPM, a UK-based SIPP provider with over 6,000 customers, went into administration in June. It administers about 5,000 SIPPs with assets under administration of around £630 million.
The business will now be administered by Suffolk Life Pensions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Curtis Banks, with offices and staff retained at EPM’s offices near Salisbury.
The acquisition continues Curtis Banks’ stated strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition.
Rupert Curtis, chief executive at Curtis Banks, said: “This is an acquisition of a significant book of SIPPs that further enhances our position as the largest SIPP operating group providing bespoke purely administration services.
“We look forward to welcoming the EPM clients to the Curtis Banks Group and working with their professional advisers.”
Will Self, managing director of Suffolk Life, added: “This acquisition, coming shortly after Suffolk Life joined the Curtis Banks Group, delivers a statement of the group’s commitment to grow our position in the independent SIPP market.
“It also demonstrates our capability to support advisers and investors in sections of the market that many other SIPP operators have retreated from.”
Curtis Banks Group completed the £45 million purchase of Suffolk Life from Legal & General Retail Investments in May.
Curtis Banks, whose Dundee office is in City House, Overgate, is now the second-largest independent SIPP administrator in the UK.
It has 68,000 pension schemes with assets under administration of around £18 billion.
