This comes several months after International Adviser reported that IFGL agreed to buy the international Sipp and Ssas administration business of Sovereign Group.

SPS is based in Bromborough, Wirral. Established in 2003 as MW Pensions, it was acquired by Sovereign Group in 2016 and rebranded.

The company will continue to be based in Bromborough, Wirral, where it employs 45 staff. Work will now begin to rebrand SPS as IFGL Pensions by the middle of 2023.

‘Ambitious plans’

David Kneeshaw, IFGL chief executive, said: “We are delighted we can now officially welcome SPS into the IFGL family. We have ambitious plans for their future – as I said when we announced the deal last year, this is a strategic acquisition which will allow IFGL to provide a wider range of services and value to customers and advisers.

“There is a gap in the market for a service-led and cost effective Sipp proposition and SPS, soon to be IFGL Pensions, will be able to fill that gap.”

Sovereign Group chief executive Gerry Kelly added: “Our work with IFGL since the deal was announced in August 2022 has confirmed that we made the right choice to take the business forward and we wish IFGL and the dedicated staff of SPS every success in the next stage of their development.”

In January 2023, international private equity firm Cinven became the majority investor of the RL360, Ardan International and Friends Provident International parent company.

Tim Sargisson is set to leave his post as chief executive of the IFA firm next year.

He has been chief executive of Sandringham Partners since 2015 and led the sale of the business to M&G.

The existing management of Sandringham will remain in place.

Huddersfield-based Sandringham sits alongside M&G Wealth’s existing advice, platform and investment businesses and will continue to operate under the Sandringham brand.

Novia Financial

The platform business has appointed Eden Scrivenger as chief technology officer.

Scrivenger, who will join in September, joins from Investec Wealth & Investment, where she is chief technology officer.

Pershing

The financial business solutions provider has named Cécile Nagel as chief executive of its Emea business, effective October 2022.

Nagel is currently the chief executive of the European Central Counterparty.

Sovereign Group

The trust services provider has hired Matt Boyd as business development manager, according to his Linkedin profile.

Boyd was previously senior business consultant at Continental Group International.

Melbourne Capital Group

The cross-border wealth firm has named Jamie Bubb-Sacklyn as a financial planner in Kuala Lumpur.

He was previously a financial planner at Infinity Financial Solutions.

Sovereign Pension Services (SPS) is based in Bromborough, Wirral. Established in 2003 as MW Pensions, it was acquired by Sovereign Group in 2016 and rebranded.

Financial details were not disclosed.

The announcement comes six months after it was revealed that private equity firm Cinven was to success Vitruvian Partners as the majority investor in IFGL. At the time, IFGL chief executive David Kneeshaw (pictured) said the change would “accelerate the group’s ambitious plans for growth”.

Kneeshaw said SPS “is a strategic acquisition which will allow IFGL to provide a wider range of services and value to customers and advisers”.

“There’s a gap in the market for a service-led and cost effective Sipp proposition, and we were attracted to SPS specifically because of their strong reputation among advisers.”

Sovereign Group chief executive Gerry Kelly described Sipps as “an integral part of the success of Sovereign’s pension offering”.

“On meeting with IFGL, it became clear that it was the right partner to develop this segment further, allowing Sovereign to focus on building the corporate and trust side of its business in the UK.

“This acquisition also provides new opportunities for our [45-strong] dedicated workforce in the Wirral, who are very much looking forward to being part of the IFGL family.”

See also: INTERVIEW: RL360 chief executive on FPI acquisition

The UK regulator has appointed Ruairi O’Connell as director of international.

O’Connell will join the FCA from the Home Office, where he is director of international.

He will be responsible for helping to shape the FCA’s international strategy as well as overseeing the FCA’s international engagement including matters arising from the UK withdrawal from the EU.

Gam

The asset management company has appointed Sally Orton as group chief financial officer.

She is currently deputy chief financial officer.

This follows Richard McNamara’s decision to step down from the chief financial officer role. He has been in the role since 2015 and will leave the firm towards the end of the year.

Nucleus

The platform has named Mike Regan as chief financial officer, subject to regulatory approval.

He will officially start and also join the board on 12 September. He joins from digital insurer BGLI, where he was chief financial officer.

Regan will take over from Stuart Geard, chief financial of Nucleus Financial and Gavin Howard, chief financial officer of James Hay. Both are stepping aside to consider a new challenge.

Ocorian

The financial services group has strengthened its executive team with the appointment of Gavin James as chief financial officer.

Most recently, James was chief financial officer for global technology and management consulting group Capco.

He takes over from Anthony Zarmakoupis, who has been in the role since 2019.

Sovereign Group

David MacDonald has been named as head of business development in Singapore at the financial services provider, according to his Linkedin profile.

He was head of business development at advice firm AAM Advisory.

Julius Baer

The private banking group has hired Jonathan Conner and Thomas Kloss as senior relationship managers to support business growth and regional expansion in Middle East & Africa.

Prior to joining Julius Baer, Conner worked at JP Morgan for 14 years, where he provided wealth management services to ultra-high net worth individuals and families from the Middle East out of New York and Geneva.

Kloss joins Julius Baer from HSBC Private Bank in Geneva, where he was responsible for managing client relationships across the Middle East.

Pimco

Richard Clarida is re-joining the investment manager as managing director and global economic adviser.

He will join in October and be based in Pimco’s New York office.

Prior to returning to Pimco, Clarida was the former vice chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Joachim Fels, managing director and currently Pimco’s global economic adviser, will retire from Pimco at the end of the year.

Hampden & Co

The UK private bank has hired Gill Sanders as a banking director.

Sanders spent over 20 years with Adam & Co, most recently as associate director of private banking.

Evelyn Partners

The wealth management and professional services group has hired Harley Jarvis as an adviser in its Chelmsford financial planning team.

Jarvis joins from Essex-based financial planning firm Forrester-Hyde.

Canada Life Asset Management

The firm has made a series of senior promotions across the business.

Rebekah Riddell has been appointed head of trading, a newly created role. James Stoddart has been appointed head of distribution for asset management, succeeding Ian Goulsbra, who retired as director of investment sales in July 2022.

Lastly. Sanjay Patel has been appointed director of global private debt.

Currently, non-residents of Cyprus who take up employment in the European country and are paid more than €100,000 (£84,658, $104,938) per year can benefit from a 50% tax exemption in respect of their employment income for the first 10 years of employment.

Under the proposed legislation, the minimum required salary will be reduced to €55,000 per year, while the duration of the 50% tax exemption will be extended to 17 years from from the start of their employment in Cyprus.

A grace period of two years will apply for obtaining the tax advantage in cases where an employee’s initial remuneration starts at a figure below the minimum annual salary of €55,000.

The incentive scheme will also apply to existing employees in Cyprus, provided they were resident abroad for 12 consecutive years prior to the start of their employment in Cyprus. In such cases, a grace period of six months will be applied to achieve the minimum annual salary threshold of €55,000.

The move is also targeting Cypriot citizens who are currently living and working abroad by offering them the same benefits as their foreign counterparts in a bid to persuade them to repatriate.

Boost economy

Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides said on 10 May 2022: “We are convinced that this scheme is one of the most competitive of its kind in the European Union. There is already a lot of interest, and it particularly concerns high-tech companies, which in recent years seem to choose the island as a place to relocate their headquarters.

“The employees and companies that will settle in Cyprus due to this programme will bring direct and indirect benefits to the local economy, while the administrations of international businesses are also encouraged to move their headquarters to Cyprus, thus creating a real infrastructure on the island.”

George Ayiomamitis, managing director of Sovereign Trust Cyprus, added: “Cyprus’s generous intellectual property (IP) tax regime has already made it an attractive and popular new home for high-tech and IP-rich companies. Now, it is improving its third-country recruitment incentives to match.

“Cyprus already offers the most competitive corporate and individual tax regimes in the EU, and we have seen huge interest from companies worldwide, especially tech companies, in establishing their headquarters on the island. This new bill will only add to Cyprus’ attractiveness for headquartering.”

Karen Ogilvie, director of compliance at Blacktower Financial Management Group, told International Adviser: “The Cyprus government is looking to attract talent and promote headquartering to benefit the economy, utilising the excellent international business infrastructure in place whilst advancing the technology and financial services sectors. Through this relocation, the tax base and income of companies is broadened.”

Tackling the covid damage

Lee Hinton, financial planner at Aisa International, told IA: “The new proposed tax scheme will be seen as a positive step in attracting new residents to Cyprus. Lowering income thresholds will allow a new set of workers access to the country. Cyprus is a great place to be located for internet-based business with the wonderful climate and the central time zone.

“Cyprus has been hard hit by the covid outbreak with a great deal of damage done to the tourism industry through the various lockdowns and the restrictions of movement of local residents – certainly harsher and longer than those imposed within the UK.

“While the income tax revenue from those individuals moving to Cyprus on the proposed scheme will be nil, the hope is that income will be spent within Cyprus in many other forms including; property rentals, car purchases, shopping as well as utilising professional services of companies such as ourselves along with accountants and lawyers.

“The scheme also seeks to repatriate Cypriot professionals who are currently living and working abroad by offering them the same benefits as their foreign counterparts. This will no doubt help reintroduce Cypriot nationals who have perhaps stayed in places like the UK and Germany post-university and encourage them to return to their homeland.”

Jason Porter, business development director at Blevins Franks, also said to IA: “Reducing the salary level at which the 50% tax incentive kicks-in and extending the period of benefit is an interesting move by the Cypriot authorities. The fact that it can also be applied to existing employees as well makes it even more valuable for a company operating in the qualifying areas of business.

“Many firms who were attracted by the corporation tax benefits of Cyprus will now also be able to ‘sell’ the opportunity to their employees as well – be they existing or prospective. From a tax perspective, the attraction of Cyprus has always been there from an individual taxation point of view – but this has tended to mainly benefit those that live off pensions, capital and investments – favouring retirees in most part. These exciting measures should attract a whole new raft of industries, as well as their employees to the country.”