Caledonia Investments to sell stake in wealth manager 7IM for $321.5 million

(Reuters) - Caledonia Investments said on Tuesday it would sell its majority stake in wealth manager Seven Investment Management (7IM) to Canada's Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board for about 255 million pounds ($321.5 million).

The deal furthers the consolidation in Britain's money management industry as private equity firms look to snap up investment advisers to either sell them to a competitor or publicly list them.

7IM provides wealth management, asset management and platform services to more than 9,000 retail investors and 2,000 intermediaries in the UK.

Caledonia bought the company in 2015 from insurers Zurich Insurance and Aegon NV.

"Caledonia's investment philosophy is to focus on growth over the long term, ensuring that our portfolio companies are well-placed for exit when the right time comes for all stakeholders," said Tom Leader, Caledonia's head of Private Capital.

"Our investment in 7IM embodies this philosophy."

Caledonia expects the deal to be completed in late 2023 or early 2024, it said. The company had net assets of about 2.8 billion pounds at July-end.

($1 = 0.7933 pounds)

(Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Janane Venkatraman)