The Tavistock board said it was confirming the possibility of a sell off after recent media speculation.

The Ascot-based business has suffered losses in recent times and has been reviewing future strategy although it recently said it had seen some improvement financially. The firm has also continued to make acquisitions itself.

The company said today in a statement: “The board of Tavistock notes the recent media speculation and confirms that it is considering a number of potential transactions, including a possible disposal of part of the group's business to Saltus, a Financial Planning and investment management services group.

“There can be no guarantee that such a transaction will be concluded, and the board will only proceed with such a transaction if it considers it to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. The company will make further announcements if and when appropriate.”

Saltus started as an investment management firm in 2004 and launched Saltus Financial Planning in 2015. The Saltus group now employs more than 200 people and completed three acquisitions in 2022, including London Chartered Financial Planning firm Higgins Fairbairn Advisory LLP, Farnham Financial Planning firm Fish Financial and Hertfordshire wealth management firm NSL Wealth. The firm also acquired Lorica in 2020 and Consilia in March 2021.

Saltus has declined to comment on the approach.

Earlier this month Tavistock executive chairman Oliver Cooke moved from an executive chair role to become non-exec chair.

Last October Tavistock reported better trading after previously making a loss of nearly £1m. In its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2023 the firm said revenue was up 19% compared to same period the previous year to £20.6 million (H1 2022: £17.3 million). The previous year the group reaped a windfall profit of £30.67m after the sale of its investment arm Tavistock Wealth to Titan Wealth in August 2021 for an initial sum of £20m.

The company revealed in its interim results at the time that it had completed its review of all British Steel Defined Benefit Pension Transfer cases with “minimal uninsured cost being incurred.” It did not disclose the cost of rectifying any BSPS cases.

In April last year the company acquired Precise Protect, a UK-wide protection business based in Bangor, Northern Ireland, which it expected to be a major contributor to the future profitability of the group and has been integrated into the business.

Following the transaction, Tavistock now has a network of over 400 advisers and other business introducers working with more than 110,000 UK retail clients with total assets estimated to be over £6 billion, as well as 350 corporate and affinity clients with some 16,000 employees.