Private investors to boom

THE NUMBER of wealthy private investors is set to balloon over the next seven years, according to a report published yesterday by the US investment bank Merrill Lynch and management consultancy firm Gemini Consulting.

The report predicts that the number of UK investors with financial assets of more than pounds 50,000 will rise by 25 per cent by the year 2005. This rise in private wealth will be driven by an ever-increasing reliance on private pensions as state provision is progressively reduced and the average age of the population rises, the report says.