(Sharecast News) - Investment manager Foresight Group said on Thursday that it has agreed to sell its public markets arm, Foresight Capital Management, to Guinness Global Investors as it continues to streamline the business and sharpen its focus on core areas.
Foresight said the deal will see around £1bn of assets under management - roughly 7% of group AUM at 31 March - and 16 employees transfer to Guinness. Completion was expected to take place in the third quarter.

The FTSE 250-listed firm said the disposal would simplify its operating model and allow it to concentrate on its Real Assets and Private Equity divisions.

FCM will be treated as a discontinued operation in Foresight's upcoming full‑year results. Including the impact of the sale, Foresight expects to meet FY26 core EBITDA pre‑share-basaed payments consensus estimates.

Executive chairman Bernard Fairman said: "When we launched Foresight Capital Management as our public markets investment division in 2017, we saw an opportunity to broaden our product set by applying Foresight's deep real assets knowledge to public markets. The early success of the FCM division - growing AUM from initiation in 2017 to £1.6bn in 2022 - reflected the size of the market opportunity at that time and the quality of our team and products.

"Today, however, the market opportunity has changed with ongoing challenges in this sector creating a need to operate at ever increasing scale, often through consolidation, in order to deliver attractive returns. It is a consequence of these factors and a desire to rationalise our business, that has led to this disposal.

As of 0810 BST, Foresight shares were down 1.04% at 430p.



Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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