Foresight Group (LON:FSG) has agreed to sell its public markets investment division, Foresight Capital Management (FCM), to Guinness Global Investors.
The deal brings seven strategies across real assets and sustainable and impact funds into the Guinness fold. Funds being transferred include the likes of FP Foresight Global Real Infrastructure, FP Foresight Diversified Real Assets and FP Foresight Sustainable Future Themes.
The disposal comes as Foresight continues to streamline its operations. Management is keen to sharpen Foresight’s focus on the core real assets and private equity businesses.
Details of the deal
The sale involves the transfer of all of FCM’s funds, totalling around £1 billion in assets under management. In addition, 16 employees will make the switch to Guinness. FCM’s strategies span sustainable and impact equities, real assets, and multi-asset solutions. Their aim is to ‘provide positive change for society, the economy and the environment’.
Back in January 2025, Foresight bought WHEB and the sale includes a handful of WHEB funds. The deal reunites Mark Brennan, who launched the Guinness Global Real Assets Fund last year, with funds he developed at FCM before joining Guinness.
As Guinness Global Investors’ CEO Edward Guinness explained: ‘The FCM WHEB team will further improve our responsible investment expertise. This is a good time to be expanding our impact investing activity given the weakness in performance driven by negative politics and market sentiment.’
Brennan said: ‘Bringing the real assets strategies and team to Guinness accelerates our growth plans, giving us further scale and a larger investment team.’
Focus on private markets
Foresight’s executive chairman Bernard Fairman highlighted the FCM division’s early successes.
Assets under management grew from initiation in 2017 to £1.6 billion in 2022. ‘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,’ explained Fairman.
‘It is a consequence of these factors and a desire to rationalise our business, that has led to this disposal.’
While there are no financial terms disclosed, this deal looks a win-win for both parties.
Foresight has bemoaned the headwinds facing the FCM arm. Through this disposal, it can focus on private markets where it has a history of strong performance.
From Guinness Global Investors’ perspective, the timing of the transaction is ‘opportune’.
Investors are hungry for the diversification that real assets offer. Furthermore, the real assets sector is experiencing tailwinds from stabilising interest rates as well as the demographic change and electrification themes.
Read the press release here: https://foresight.group/shareholders/
