The deal was expected to be completed by 22 December but a new date of 19 January has now been set, Charles Stanley said today in a statement.

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 see around 200 Charles Stanley wealth managers join Raymond James, bringing about £27.1bn in assets under management and pushing up Raymond James’ UK client assets under management to over £40bn.

The deal is subject to FCA approval and sanction by the court. 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 

No reason has been given for the FCA delay in approving the deal but the regulator has admitted in recent months to suffering a backlog in dealing with workloads.

In a statement today to the London Stock Exchange Charles Stanley said: “In light of the FCA Approval Condition remaining outstanding and due to concerns on the part of Raymond James and Charles Stanley that FCA Approval would not be received sufficiently far in advance so as to allow the filing of the necessary court documentation in time for the Sanction Hearing on 20 December 2021, Charles Stanley and Raymond James have agreed to release the Sanction Hearing date of 20 December 2021 and have instead secured an alternative Sanction Hearing date on 19 January 2022, being the first available hearing date in the New Year.”

The company said that subject to the FCA Approval Condition being satisfied and the Court sanctioning the scheme it hopes the takeover will become effective on 21 January however it also said the dates could change again, depending on FCA approval.