Old Mutual listings to take place in June

OLD MUTUAL said on Friday that the next stage of a planned breakup of the Anglo-South African financial services group would take place in June with the listing of its emerging market and UK asset management units.

The listings will see shareholders receive one share in new UK wealth management company Quilter and three in Old Mutual Limited for every three Old Mutual shares currently held.

Old Mutual has been working towards a break-up since 2016 after deciding that regulatory changes had made the firm too complex to run, and has already sold out of its US fund arm.

“There were four good businesses that did not need to be held together in a group structure,” Old Mutual chief executive Bruce Hemphill said, adding that the firm’s share price had been suffering from a “conglomerate discount”.

Old Mutual’s shares, which have been trading close to multi-year highs on prospects for a break-up, closed little changed at 242.6 pence.

The next stage of the break-up will see the Old Mutual Wealth unit spun out and renamed Quilter, with a listing in London and Johannesburg, while the rest of the company, which includes the emerging markets unit, will list a day later in Johannesburg and London as Old Mutual Limited.

Bernstein analysts valued Old Mutual Wealth at £2.8bn.