Restricted national Sandringham Financial Partners has pledged to be a listed firm within the next three to five years and aims to double its adviser partners within this period.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Sandringham chairman Barry Kayes explained that after almost four years in business it was time for the founder member shareholders to crystalise the benefits of their shareholdings.
He went into no further specifics on timings for the Alternative Investment Market listing, saying that this was part of a three to five year view that was being developed by senior management, which also includes looking to double adviser partner numbers from the current 126 over the next three years.
In listing on Aim, Sandringham will join investment manager European Wealth, adviser-firm AFH Financial and consolidator Tavistock Investments.
Sandringham itself was set up by Simplybiz founder and chairman Ken Davy, spotting an opportunity to assist advisers in making the most of the post-Retail Distribution Review marketplace.
Mr Kayes shared this view, stating that Sandringham benefits from having no legacy issues to deal with and takes a progressive view on outsourcing things like investment and technology to other ‘best in class’ firms.
“We’ve been able to help our partners with focused resources, because the average IFA isn’t very good at marketing or IT at the consumer end for instance, so we can help with that.
“We also appointed a specialist auto-enrolment manager to go out and talk to firms about the opportunities available there - it’s about being reactive in a market which most advisers haven’t realised is even there.”
While the Simplybiz backing means there is enough investment to be able to make acquisitions, Mr Kayes said that he prefers the slower burn of organic growth.
“If you buy businesses there are always the problems of culture clash and legacy systems to deal with,” he added.
Crucially, Mr Kayes said that Sandringham is not yet so big that it cannot react quickly to opportunities like that, with part of the new strategy being on building in scalability to the business.
In the last month, former Tenet Group chairman Mr Kayes joined to help drive these growth plans, following soon after the arrival of Simplybiz group sales director Steve Braidford as the new managing director.
Even more recently, Tim Sargisson joined the firm as chief executive, moving from the same position with ex-Ascot Lloyd business IFG Financial Services.
peter.walker@ft.com
Additional reporting by Donia O’Loughlin
