Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street banking giant, is battling to buy a stake in Nucleus, one of Britain’s biggest platforms for financial advisers.
Sky News understands that one of Goldman’s private equity funds is among four suitors for a stake in Nucleus that will value the business at about £700m.
City sources said on Friday that the other bidders were Centerbridge Partners, GTCR and HPS.
The deal will involve Epiris, Nucleus’s existing private equity backer, reducing its stake in the company.
Nucleus is the UK’s fifth-largest platform for financial advisers, behind the likes of Quilter and Aegon.
It is the latest example of the deal frenzy which has gripped the investment advice sector following a wave of regulatory reform.
On the direct-to-consumer side of the industry, Abrdn is close to completing a £1.5bn takeover of Interactive Investor, while FNZ, the wealth platform, recently raised $1.4bn at a valuation of more than $20bn.
Goldman itself sold its stake in Nutmeg, the digital wealth platform, as part of the latter’s sale to JP Morgan last year.
Nucleus, which has close to £50bn under administration, expanded significantly through its combination with James Hay – a business already owned by Epiris – in 2021.
The Nucleus stake sale process is being run by Fenchurch Advisory Partners, whose founder, Malik Karim, is the Conservative Party treasurer.
All of the parties contacted for comment declined to do so.
