Bath-based financial services firm Novia’s name – one of the best known in the city due to its long-running sponsorship of Bath Rugby – is to disappear under a rebranding exercise by its private equity owner.
AnaCap Financial, which operates out of offices in London, Luxembourg, New Delhi, Madrid and Lisbon, acquired Novia in a deal that completed just under a year ago.
Since then AnaCap has carried out a strategic review of the firm – which delivers market-leading investment technology and service to advisers and their clients – and another of its businesses, Wealthtime, which it acquired the previous year.
The review’s conclusion is to unify the two under the Wealthtime brand.
AnaCap said the rebrand marked a new era for both businesses under CEO Patrick Mill and his new executive team.
Patrick Mill said: “We’re bringing together the two services under one group name and believe that a unified brand will allow us to have a greater impact in what is an ever-evolving market and help ensure we provide advisers and their clients with the very best proposition and outcomes for years to come.”
The combined group platforms have more than £11.8bn of pension and investment assets under administration – with Novia accounting for £9.3bn – for 67,000-plus clients.
Novia was launched in 2008 by its former chief executive Bill Vasilieff, who built it up to become one of the UK’s leading wealth management platforms capable of competing against the giants of the financial services industry.
By the time of its acquisition by AnaCap it employed more than 120 people.
The firm also set up its own charity foundation in 2018 to primarily support projects aiming to improve and help the lives of people in the city and its surroundings.
Its firm formal partnership with Bath Rugby – which made it a recognisible brand in the city – started in 2011, with its shirt sponsorship continuing until 2014.
Its branding has since been used on the team’s training kit along with naming rights on the Novia Stand (South Stand) at The Rec and matchday hospitality. It also struck a deal to sponsor the laptops used by the club’s coaches and analysts.
Patrick Mill said since the acquisition of the Wealthtime and Novia platforms by AnaCap, the business had undergone a transformation, building on the strong foundations that were already in place across the group.
“We have been preparing the ground to position the group for what we believe is a third era for platforms, differentiating on true digitisation and deeper connectivity,” he said.
“These next-generation platforms will bring superior, adviser-centred technology and customisation to the market.
“The change the business has undergone recognises this shifting landscape and the rebrand signals our intent to be in the vanguard by enabling firms to construct their technology stack as they see fit, not as platforms dictate.”
AnaCap has also migrated the assets of the Amber Financial platform it acquired in 2019 onto Novia, bringing the combined group assets to £11.8bn.
The rebrand will come into effect in the second half of this year, AnaCap said.
