Berkshire IFA Ascot Lloyd will buy a trio of UK IFA businesses from Sanderson House and James Hay IFG Group for an initial consideration of £3.5m in a deal that could be worth in excess of £9m.
IFG Financial Services Limited, John Siddalls Limited and Berkeley Jacobs Limited will merge with Wokingham-based Ascot Lloyd’s existing IFA business.
According to a statement from Dublin-listed IFG, the deal is part of the company’s aim to withdraw from what it deems “non-core businesses”. It described the three units as “traditional” IFA businesses, in contrast to the wholly fee-based Sanderson House.
In addition to the initial £3.5m a further £5.6m could be paid depending on the business’s performance in the first two years after the sale.
The deal is awaiting regulatory consent.
IFG said in a statement: “This is the final step in the rationalisation of our non-core UK activities and facilitates an increased focus on continued growth and development of our core UK businesses, Saunderson House and James Hay Partnership.”
Last year IFG Group reported that its IFA arm had a 7 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue for the first half of 2013, which offset a decline in revenue in James hay Partnership.
Also last year, Ascott Lloyd announced that it had acquired Suffolk-based Ensors Financial Planning, as it predicted a boom in referral business and hinted that it may seek to make further bolt-on purchases.
The firm debuted in FTAdviser sister title Financial Adviser’s widely referenced Top 100 Financial Advisers ranking in 2013.
According to the study, produced by Matrix Solutions, the firm generated gross sales in 2012/2013 of £72m and employed as at November 2013 a total of 32 staff with customer-facing CF30 regulatory permissions.
