Pensions company Suffolk Life is to administer an additional 5,000 Self Invested Pension Plans (SIPPs) following an acquisition by its parent company.

Curtis Banks Group, which bought Ipswich-based Suffolk Life in a £45m deal in January this year, has now acquired the SIPP business of European Pensions Mangaement (EPM) which went into administration last month.

The business, the purchase price of which has not been disclosed, will be administered by Suffolk Life but with offices and staff being retained at EPM’s site at Chilmark, near Salisbury n Wiltshire.

Rupert Curtis, chief executive at Curtis Banks, said: “This is an acquisition of a significant book of SIPPs that further enhances our position as the largest SIPP operating group providing bespoke purely administration services.

“We look forward to welcoming the EPM clients to the Curtis Banks Group and working with their professional advisers.”

Will Self, managing director of Suffolk Life, added: “This acquisition, coming shortly after Suffolk Life joined the Curtis Banks Group, delivers a statement of the group’s commitment to grow our position in the independent SIPP market, and demonstrates our capability to support advisers and investors in sections of the market that many other SIPP operators have retreated from.”

Curtis Banks is one of the UK’s leading SIPP providers with a total portfolio of around 68,000 plans, including more than 26,000 acquired as part of Suffolk Life.

The group, which is based in Bristol and also has offices in Dundee and Market Harborough, was formed in 2009 and has grown rapidly, both organically and through acquisition, with four other major portfolios having been acquired during 2014 and 2015.

The EPM SIPPs business has around £603m of assets under administration, bringing the total across the Curtis Banks Group to more than £9bn.