The IFA consolidator Succession Advisory Services has sold a majority shareholding to a private equity firm, Simon Chamberlain has said.
The group chief executive of Succession said the deal with Inflexion Private Equity, for an undisclosed sum, would free up enough funding through to 2017 to allow Succession to buy more advisory businesses.
Mr Chamberlain said the investment would help Succession create “the UK’s largest independent wealth management business through a focused ‘buy-and-build’ programme”.
He added: “With the strength and support of one of the leading private equity houses behind us, we will be able to exploit other opportunities in the marketplace as old-style nationals and networks become more and more distressed.”
Mr Chamberlain, along with partners Tim Parsons, Paul Morrish and Andrew Smith, established Succession in 2009. The venture was backed by Committed Capital, an Australia-based fund manager.
The business now has 62 member firms that advise on more than £8bn of assets. The group owns an open-architecture platform, which administers more than £1.7bn of assets; volumes are growing at 5 per cent a month.
Mr Chamberlain said the investment put the business on target to achieve its goal of acquiring the best 50 of its member firms by 2017.
Simon Turner, managing partner at Inflexion, said: “Inflexion’s investment will enable the Succession management team to deliver their vision.”
He said the deal did not signal a change in management. Mr Chamberlain remains group chief executive and Mr Pierce, who until 2009 was a non-executive director of Bluefin Group, will remain as non-executive chairman.
Marcus Barnard, an analyst for London-based Oriel Securities, said: “The environment to invest in IFA firms has improved since the RDR, but I would not ascribe a high franchise value to an IFA firm. Often what makes a firm valuable is the people, so they can form and dissolve quickly.”
Simon Chamberlain began his career in the financial industry as a founding partner of St James’s Place, staying with the company until its flotation in 1997.
He then became national development director for the Zurich Advice Network before leaving to set up his first major venture, the advisory network Thinc Destini, in 2003. The network accrued £3bn of funds under management and attracted around 900 advisers before being sold to Axa Advisory Services, later rebranded as Bluefin, in 2006.
Mr Chamberlain left Thinc two years before it closed. He re-emerged after a long period to establish Succession in 2009.
