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Interactive Investor to buy The Share Centre: what customers need to know

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
17/02/2020

Interactive Investor, the UK’s second biggest direct-to-consumer investment platform, is to purchase competitor The Share Centre in a deal worth £61.9m.

The deal is subject to shareholder, regulatory and legal approvals.

In an announcement this morning, II said: “Direct to consumer platforms require scale to sustain the level of profitability necessary for significant and ongoing technology investment in customer experience and services.

“Therefore, there is a strong strategic rationale for consolidation amongst compatible groups.”

II currently has over £30bn of assets under administration, more than 300,000 customers and more than one million users.

Last summer, it completed the acquisition of platform Alliance Trust Savings for £40m.

Richard Wilson, chief executive of ii, said: “We are delighted with this transaction. The firms’ shared values and combined strengths reinforce ii’s position as a leader in the retail investment services marketplace.

“Combining our individual strengths brings further scale and the opportunity to deliver enhanced value, service and customer experience to an enlarged customer base.”

Gavin Oldham, executive chairman of Share plc, said: “At our Annual General Meeting in June 2019, I spoke of our major strategic ambition to transform Share plc’s business over the coming years. We have to grow significantly in order to achieve this, not only in profitability but also in scale and in substance.

“That is why we have been prepared to investigate how others, who share our ambition for a more egalitarian form of capitalism, would work with us in order to achieve it. With our prospective new colleagues in ii we have discovered just such a meeting of minds, and a shared purpose for the future.”

What it means for customers

II said it intends to migrate The Share Centre’s customers to its platform once the deal has been completed.

However, while the integration is going through regulatory approvals, there will be no changes to how customers operate their account. For example, The Share Centre customers are still able to trade and deal in their investments as normal, pay in directly or via direct debit and contact our customer service teams as normal.

Customers will be informed of any changes once the deal is finalised.