Private equity firm Preservation Capital Partners has today acquired the Parmenion platform from owners Standard Life Aberdeen for "up to £102m."

Standard Life says it expects the deal to "generate proceeds of up to £102 million."

Parmenion manages £8bn of assets on behalf of over 2,500 advisers and 68,000 underlying clients. 

New owner Preservation Capital Partners (PCP) specialises in acquiring financial services businesses. Its current portfolio includes Lloyds broker BMS and insurance managing agent Optio.

It says it will treat Parmenion as a standalone acquisition with no plans for major changes at the outset and no integration planned with other businesses. There will be no changes to Parmenion’s operations, management or team.

PCP’s typical investments in companies are in the region of £50m-£150m. 

The takeover is expected to take three to six months to achieve. 

Parmenion says with PCP’s support it will “forge ahead with our plans for 2021 and beyond.” It believes that the new ownership means customers can expect "more digital innovation to reduce costs, more data insight to reduce risk and more ways to build value”. 

Parmenion CEO Martin Jennings said: “We are delighted that Preservation Capital has recognised the potential in our business and share our future vision. Their belief in us, our teams and what we deliver every day to advisers and their clients means there is total alignment of interests, and we are genuinely excited about our future.”

Andrea Secci, principal at PCP, said: “We wholeheartedly back Martin and his team in their ambition to grow AUM and become one of the largest privately-held independent adviser investment platforms and will invest in operational excellence and top-quality talent to maintain Parmenion’s strong industry recognition.”

Stephen Bird, CEO of Standard Life Aberdeen, said: "I am very pleased to confirm the sale of Parmenion to Preservation Capital Partners today. The sale demonstrates our commitment to simplify our operations and reconfigure our business, and investment, around our growth vectors. In the Adviser vector, we will continue to focus on providing a market-leading proposition to financial advisers through our Wrap and Elevate platforms.” 

Standard Life Aberdeen confirmed it was starting to look for a buyer for the platform in November. Parmenion was one of three adviser platforms operated by the group.

Standard Life Aberdeen sold its Standard Life brand to the Phoenix Group in February as part of a branding review of all its businesses. 

There has been speculation since Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management merged in 2017 over whether the combined group would hold on to all three of its platforms: Wrap, Elevate and Parmenion.