AssetCo (ASTO) has bought the entire share capital of Ocean Dial Asset Management from Avendus Capital Asset Management for £4.1m.

Ocean Dial was established in 2005 and manages the £116m India Capital Growth (IGC ) investment trust and the $110m (£91.4m) Gateway to India open-ended fund.

The trust, which is managed by Gaurav Narain and Tridib Pathak, currently trades at a 12.9% discount to its NAV.

Consideration for the deal is made up of more than 2.9 million ordinary shares of 1p each, and £2.1m in cash.

The acquisition is conditional on approval from the FCA, the Reserve Bank of India, and the Securities Exchange Board of India.

Shares in AssetCo were down 1.3% to 67p at 8:00am following the announcement. The firm’s share price has dropped an eye-watering 55% over the course of a year.

Martin Gilbert, chairman of AssetCo, said: ‘AssetCo’s mission is to acquire, improve and grow asset management businesses with potential.

‘We are excited about the long-term potential that India offers and see opportunities to add value by bringing Ocean Dial together with the other active equity asset management businesses we are combining under the River and Mercantile brand.’

In December Gilbert announced that the active equity units of AssetCo would be changed to the River & Mercantile brand (R&M).

The changes, which are set to take place this year, will see R&M merge its operating structure with SVM Asset Management, Saracen Fund Managers and Revera Asset Management.

Prior to the Ocean Dial deal, Gilbert bought Colin McLean’s SVM for £11m in June last year.

The asset manager struck a £2.8m deal for Edinburgh fund firm Revera in February 2022, following its purchase of fellow Edinburgh-based fund manager Saracen, which was snapped up by AssetCo last May.

The firm also bought a majority stake in thematic ETF provider Rize in July, as well as a 30% stake in asset management platform Parmenion in the same month.

In AssetCo’s full year results to the end of September, it announced its assets under management had risen from £113m to £3.1bn on the back of its string of acquisitions.

The business posted a loss for the year of £9.2m, down from a profit of £14.6m the previous year, which the group attributed to last year’s market downturn and restructuring costs.