Harwood Wealth, which acquired nine advice businesses in 2018, is set to acquire more in the year ahead, according to its chairman Peter Mann.
Mr Mann told FTAdviser the firm has set aside £4.2m for acquisitions in the coming year and was willing to take on debt if needed.
But he said Harwood’s approach to acquisitions differed from other firms'.
He said: "We are not vertically integrated, a lot of the consolidators in the advice market are buying firms in order for those firms to distribute the investment products of the buying firm.
"We are not doing that, we do have investment products they can use if they want to, but they don’t have to."
He added that he wanted firms that have advisers who "want to express themselves as financial advisers, people who want to retain the freedom they had [before acquisition]."
Mr Mann said his firm regularly got approached by advisers looking to be acquired and did not feel it had to compete with other consolidators to buy the same firms.
And the company’s chief executive, Alan Durrant, said it had benefitted financially from the acquisitions made in recent years, as could be seen in the profit margin achieved by the firm.
In the full year to the end of October 2018, the company posted a profit of £2m, up from the previous £1.2m
Mr Mann said: "It has been another year of strong growth for the group, with Ebitda achieved ahead of the board's expectations set at the start of the year.
"Our financial success demonstrates the efficacy of Harwood's three-pronged growth strategy and the benefits of building a recognised market position in a fast-consolidating industry.
"The group's growth in revenue was driven by the completion of nine acquisitions over the period, as well as the impact of prior year acquisitions.
"Acquisitions are a key part of our strategy. We remain very confident that a large pool of opportunities exists, many of which we expect to execute in 2019, continuing to grow the business in scale and capability."
david.thorpe@ft.com
