The FCA has today approved the £280m takeover of wealth manager Charles Stanley by rival wealth firm Raymond James.

The takeover deal had to be pushed back a month due to delays in securing FCA approval.

The deal was originally expected to be completed this month but the takeover will now take place on 21 January, subject to a court hearing on 19 January.

Charles Stanley shares will be delisted on 24 January with the deal due to fully completed by the end of January.

The acquisition, one of the largest in the wealth management sector, was announced in July with Raymond James agreeing to acquire the entire issued share capital of Charles Stanley for 515p per share.

The deal will add around 200 Charles Stanley wealth managers to Raymond James and boost Raymond James’ UK client assets under management to over £40bn.

The acquisition must get court approval due to the proposed acquisition method. The court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement is under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006.

In a Stock Exchange announcement today Charles Stanley said: "Charles Stanley is pleased to announce that the FCA has, on 21 December 2021, given approval and accordingly Condition 3(a) set out in Part A of Part 3 of the Scheme Document has been satisfied."

Charles Stanley also said that since a four month period had passed since the announcement of the deal a reference to the Competition and Markets Authority was now unlikely.

The Charles Stanley statement said: "Charles Stanley can also confirm that the four month period following the announcement of the Acquisition within which the UK Competition and Markets Authority (the "CMA") can open a formal CMA Merger Investigation or make a CMA Phase 2 Reference expired on 29 November 2021 and accordingly Condition 3(b) set out in Part A of Part 3 of the Scheme Document has been satisfied."