Shareholders of Investment Manager Selection (Holdings) Limited

On 1 April 2008 our clients the shareholders of Investment Manager Selection (Holdings) Limited ("IMS") , agreed the terms of a sale of IMS to BNP Paribas. The transaction also completed on 1 April 2008 and was announced on 2 April 2008.

IMS is a London-based asset manager with £5.1billion assets under management and advice. It is a long-only multi-manager with both fund-of-funds and manager-of-manager equity mandates run on behalf of institutional clients, insurers, family offices and pension schemes. It was founded in 1999 by Richard Timberlake and Peter O'Connor, two well-known figures in the UK asset management industry.

BNP Paribas made the acquisition though its BNP Paribas Investment Partners platform ("BNP IP") , which combines all of BNP Paribas' specialist asset management capabilities. Multi-management is an area of focus for BNP IP and the acquisition of IMS significantly strengthens its activities in the UK. IMS will be combined with BNP IP's existing multi-management unit FundQuest and the combined business of IMS and FundQuest will have over 200 employees, including c50 investment professionals. For IMS the transaction provides access to a powerful European distribution network to complement it's well-regarded product manufacturing capability.

Canaccord Genuity was sole financial advisor to the shareholders of Investment Manager Selection (Holdings) Limited.