Dealmaker mulls £100m pensions adviser sale

AN INVESTMENT firm led by a dealmaker that has shelled out thousands of pounds to meet the Prime Minister is weighing a £100 million sale of a pensions advisory company it owns.

City sources said buy-out firm Livingbridge, which is run by Wol Kolade, has appointed advisers from Deloitte to find a buyer for Broadstone, a company that specialises in selling pensions advice to small and mediumsized businesses.

Kolade told The Mail on Sunday last year that he is a member of the Leaders Group, where senior bosses make donations of at least £50,000 to have dinners with senior Cabinet Ministers, such as former Prime Minister Theresa May.

Broadstone also provides advice on employee benefits and investment services to pension fund trustees and pension scheme members.

The company was set up in 1989 by a former partner at accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward and Livingbridge bought a stake in 2016.

Since Livingbridge backed Broadstone it has carried out several takeovers, including the purchase of CS Financial Services.

The sale process comes at a time when many private equity firms have put deals on hold to see the full scale of the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

Advent International – which bought Cobham last year for £4 billion – recently pulled out of a £1.5 billion takeover of the AIM-listed pharmaceuticals company Clinigen.

Livingbridge declined to comment.