London—Dentons has advised Souter Investments, one of the UK’s leading family investment offices specialising in private equity, and Manfield Partners, on reaching an agreement to sell Mobius Life, the leading independent provider of investment administration services to UK pension schemes, to Phoenix Equity Partners. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.

Phoenix will invest alongside the current management team, led by Mobius Life CEO Adrian Swales, many of whom are shareholders in the business and who will all remain with Mobius Life to drive its continued growth and development. Terms have not been disclosed.

Mobius Life was acquired in a management buy-out backed by Souter Investments and Manfield Partners in 2014. Since acquisition the business has grown assets under administration from c.£3.0 billion to c.£17 billion, and it now provides value adding services to more than 550 institutional clients including pension scheme trustees, consultants and advisers, asset managers, and life insurance companies. The investment from Phoenix will enable Mobius Life to further develop its proposition for clients and advisers and continue to deliver a high quality institutional platform service.

Neil Nicholson, partner in Dentons' UK Corporate team who led on the deal with UK Financial Services partner Michael Wainwright, said, "We were very pleased to use our corporate and regulatory expertise to help Souter, Manfield and the management team led by Adrian Swales realise a successful exit and assist the Mobius team on the next step of their impressive journey".

Alongside Neil Nicholson and Michael Wainwright, the Dentons team in London included Tax partner James Meakin, Corporate senior associate Christopher Winn, and Corporate trainees Asila Al Hinai and Lannie Churchill.

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