A new entrant consolidator founded by two former Mattioli Woods directors has ambitions to manage £1bn worth of assets in its first year in the market.
Truinvest was launched to the market last year by Mark Smith and Micky Johal and is close to completing its second acquisition in the advice market, after securing its first deal in March.
Mr Smith and Mr Johal previously worked together at wealth manager Mattioli Woods in the roles of chief operating officer and director of mergers and acquisitions respectively.
Speaking with FTAdviser Mr Smith said the consolidator had set its sights on managing £1bn of client assets in the venture's first 12 months, with the company's acquisition trail undeterred by the coronavirus pandemic.
Truinvest secured funding from a private family office last year and is on track to complete its second deal later this month, with ambitions to secure £50m of revenues over the next five years.
Mr Smith said the consolidator was in detailed discussions to acquire a further three advice firms and had another half a dozen in the pipeline, but was also planning to grow the company organically by actively recruiting advisers.
He said: "The coronavirus crisis is obviously challenging but because we already have committed funding we are able to continue acquisition discussions, where others have had to pull out of the market.
"Where a lot of other firms in the sector are putting deals on hold, we are still pushing on."
Mr Smith said in the majority of cases the principal of the acquired firm would stay on with Truinvest and the deal would not be part of the seller's retirement strategy.
Deal activity in the advice industry has seen a split response to the pandemic, with some businesses pushing ahead with acquisitions and others taking a more cautious approach and pausing their pipeline.
In March Ascot Lloyd confirmed new deals were still part of "business as usual" despite the market turmoil and last month new-entrant Independent Wealth Planners told FTAdviser it was eyeing a pipeline of 20 deals undeterred by the pandemic.
But elsewhere in the market Tavistock Investments and Attivo Group have both put deals on hold.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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