Lord Cruddas, the former treasurer of the Conservative Party, plots a raid of 40 million pounds Sterling on Winterflood, one of the most famous brokerage franchises in the city, because his parents is nodded with the crisis engulfing the automotive financing sector.
Sky News learned that CMC Markets, the online financial trading group and investment founded and led by Lord Cruddas, is one of a number of parties that have had recent discussions with a group of brothers closed on a possible Winterflood acquisition.
Close Brothers, who has reserved 165 million pounds sterling for the remuneration of customers who were poorly sold, would serve bankers in UBS on a potential sale of the broker.
Founded in 1988 by Brian Winterflood with a team of nearly 40 brokers from the county of Natwest, the company was acquired by Close Brothers in 1993.
Mr. Winterflood, who died in 2023 at the age of 86, was nicknamed the “founding father” of the London Aim Junior stock market, having established its precursor, the market of values unremonstrated.
Despite its importance, Winterflood had recently struggling in the midst of a difficult commercial environment.
Last month, Close Brothers reported in its annual results that “market conditions remained unfavorable” at Winterflood, displaying a loss of 0.8 million pounds Sterling for the unit during the six months on January 31.
Winterflood’s negotiation income dropped by 6% to 24 million pounds sterling, which, according to him, was partly the result of “confidence of moderate investors” in the actions listed by AIM.
“With inflation and moderating interest rates, we are planning a gradual improvement in investor confidence and commercial activity,” he added.
The wider close brothers took place at a defeat during the same period following the provision of automotive financing, the company exposed in a disproportionate manner to the crisis – which was devoted to the Supreme Court – among the British banks.
An acquisition of Winterflood by CMC would be a logical agreement for Lord Cruddas, which has diversified the CMC markets in a broader investment empire in recent years.
CMC has a market assessment of just over 650 million pounds sterling, Lord Cruddas with majority participation in the company.
He recently signed a partnership with Revolut, one of the most precious digital banks in the world, to offer customers trading services using its CMC Markets Connect technology.
At one point, the conservative peer explored a break from CMC, but no longer actively.
Friday, it was not clear how much the talks were put forward between CMC and Close Brothers.
People close to closing Brothers said he was not sure that he would unload Winterflood and would only do so if he could guarantee attractive valuation.
Close Brothers has already sold its wealth management subsidiary, concluding an agreement of 167 million pounds sterling with funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management.
Lord Cruddas is not the only possible pretender for Winterflood, with Peel Hunt, the London mid -basic investment bank, which would also be interested in the idea of an agreement.
Peel Hunt would not have had serious discussions on an offer, and it was not clear on Friday how it would finance an agreement if it progressed.
On Thursday, Close Brothers’ shares closed at 295.4p, which gives it a market capitalization of 445 million pounds sterling.
The stock has dropped a third in the past year.
The CMC markets and the close brothers refused to comment.