Business as usual for rebranded investment management firm

The company will be known as Investec Wealth and Investment from next month.

The rebrand comes after the Anglo-South African investment bank took full ownership of Rensburg Sheppards a year ago.

The original intention had been to keep the name, but the board has since decided to use the identity of FTSE-100 parent company.

Directors did not want to duplicate marketing spend promoting Investec and believe they can use the brand as a platform to build a bigger business.

“You have got to look forward rather than backward,” said Simon Kaye, divisional director, asked about the loss of the Rensburg Sheppards name.

“We are very keen to grow the business and look after more Yorkshire private clients.

“We are very keen to build our business in this region.

“I’m sure Investec would be happy to support us if we wanted to make acquisitions – if the right one came along, such as a smaller investment firm – but actual client relationships do not change.”

The Leeds office of Rensburg Sheppards employs 100 people who manage around £1.4 billion on behalf of 5,000 clients across Yorkshire, the UK and the rest of the world.

The office represents the amalgamation of former operations in Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds which came together at the end of the 1990s.

Rensburg Sheppards also has an office in Sheffield.

Typical customers of the firm include private clients with assets of between £250,000-£350,000, plus charities, pension funds and trusts.

The business also has a small venture capital division and a financial planning and personal pensions team.

“Most of the clients understand the volatility of the equity markets,” said Mr Kaye. “Most would want reasonable capital appreciation.

“Quite a lot of them invest in equity portfolios because they can generate a higher level of income than they could if they were holding funds in deposit.”

He gave an insight into current performance.

“Our target for net organic growth is 5 per cent which we have achieved consistently in Leeds,” he said.

On the outlook, he said: “I’m reasonably positive. The market has remained quite buoyant.

“We have had some horrendous news, such as the situation in the Middle East, which is ongoing, and all the problems in Japan.

“Yet the market has remained relatively high.”

Most corporate balance sheets are in good order, when compared to consumers and governments, he added.

As such, the firm’s preferred investments include “big, stable, blue chips that have reasonable and secure dividends”, such as pharmaceutical and tobacco companies and some of the utility firms.

Mr Kaye acknowledged the ecline in number of quoted companies in Yorkshire. He said: “There’s not as much of Yorkshire plc as there once was.

“There were a lot of smaller quoted companies 20 years ago. We were one of them.

“There have been takeovers and amalgamation and probably less small companies floated.

“It would be better if we had more quoted companies in this area. From a practical point of view, it’s quite nice to be able to invest in companies in their own area.”

Rensburg Sheppards has its roots in the 19th Century’s financial expansion and can trace its history back to 1837, when stockbrokers Stanley Battye & Co was founded in Huddersfield.

Henry Rensburg started his stockbroking firm in Liverpool in 1873, after being elected a member of the city’s stock exchange. Around the same time, William Ernest Wimpenny and Abraham Dawson founded their own stockbroking firms in Yorkshire.

The firms of Battye, Wimpenny and Dawson merged in the 1970s and in 1988 the holding company floated on the London Stock Exchange.

Soon after, BWD and Rensburg joined forces.

In 2004 the company changed its name from BWD Securities to Rensburg and in 2005 it merged with Carr Sheppards Crosthwaite, to create Rensburg Sheppards.

Investec, which is listed in London and South Africa, held 47 per cent of the merged company and in 2010 made an agreed offer to acquire the remaining shares.

Mr Kaye, from Huddersfield, joined the business in 1986.

EXPANSION FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS

INVESTEC was founded in 1974 as a small finance company in Johannesburg.

It acquired a banking licence six years later. As a result, it expanded its activities beyond leasing and instalment finance into areas such as corporate and professional banking.

In 1992 it made its first overseas acquisition, the London-based Allied Trust Bank.

Four years ago, Investec acquired Kensington Group and sold its South African property fund management and property administration business to Growthpoint Properties.