UK – Financial services firm Seymour Pierce says it is in “advanced talks” to sell its asset management division, Pavilion Asset Management.

Pavilion has around three billion pounds in assets under management in a combination of unit linked tax-exempt funds, pension funds and unit trusts, and has been active in socially responsible investing.

Signs of a restructuring of the parent company, Seymour Pierce, was clear in the chairman’s statements last month. Subsidiaries Pavilion Capital and Seymour Pierce Bell Ltd., a private client stock broking firm had been restructured and disposed of, and the chairman said that a bid approach was being explored.

Seymour Pierce confirmed the bid approach today, although it said the group as a whole was focused on the investment banking division - which had “now resulted in an offer to acquire the division on a stand-alone basis” involving the participation of “certain board directors and the division’s management”.

Press reports have suggested that New Star Asset Management was in discussions to buy the business, but the fund management company would not comment.


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