PRIVATE EQUITY group Bridgepoint Capital has acquired Quilter, the private wealth management business of Morgan Stanley, in a deal understood to be worth just over €200 million.

It is the second time that Morgan Stanley has sold Quilter, which has €9.1 billion in assets under management and caters to private clients, charities, trusts and pension funds. The US bank sold Quilter to rival Citigroup in 2006, but Morgan Stanley reacquired the business when it took a majority stake in Smith Barney three years ago.

Quilter operates with customers who have at least £200,000 (€240,000) in assets, and it has 26,000 clients in Britain and Ireland.

The group employs 350 people at 13 locations, including a team of about 12 in Dublin.

Management will be taking an equity stake in the business under the deal.

Morgan Stanley is selling the business because it considers this market for so-called mass-affluent clients to be outside its core business in Europe, where it instead focuses on the ultra-wealthy who are typically worth millions of pounds.

Bridgepoint, which is based in London and targets medium-sized companies, has fought off competition from Permira, a rival private equity group, to buy the business.

The pan-European buy-out house, which currently invests from a €4.8 billion fund, is planning to finance the deal exclusively with equity.

Its interest in Quilter has been spurred by the growing market for private client wealth management services.

The deal underlines how private equity groups are showing renewed interest in the financial services sector, where they are preparing themselves for disposals from European banks that are forced to shrink their balance sheets. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012)