Sale of WH Ireland's wealth management business on brink of collapse - report

(Sharecast News) - The sale of WH Ireland's wealth management division to Oberon Investments is reportedly on the brink of collapse after a group of investors including Hugh Osmond moved to block the deal. According to Sky News, shareholders accounting for more than half of WH Ireland's stock will vote against the sale to Oberon at a general meeting on Thursday.

City sources told Sky that other buyers had expressed interest in acquiring the division but that WH Ireland's directors had made it clear that they would be unable to share material information about it with rival suitors even after the Oberon deal had been rejected.

WH Ireland announced on 22 September that it had agreed to sell the wealth management business to Oberon for £1m. It said at the time that despite implementing further cost-saving measures, the business remained loss-making and would require substantial investment to achieve sustainable profitability.

It said a further capital raise to fund such investment would be "highly dilutive and difficult to execute in current circumstances".

Responding to an enquiry from Sky News, a WH Ireland spokesman said: "At this stage the proxy votes filed with the company's registrars indicate that the resolutions will fail, but the actual outcome of the general meeting will not be known until the meeting has been held tomorrow."

At 1020 BST, WH Ireland shares were up 17.5% at 0.47p.