A financial advice and fund management firm has launched with two acquisitions, backed by private equity.
One Four Nine is a consolidator targeting accountancy firms and other professional services firms that own or have a joint venture with financial advice firms, as well as stand alone financial advisers, particularly those with an interest in recommending tax efficient alternative investments, such as EISs and VCTs.
The firm has already acquired Charter Financial Planning and Rice Whatmough Crozier, two financial advisory firms totalling seven advisers and £300m in assets under management.
Charter Financial Planning is based in Preston and covers the North-West of England. The firm has three advisers, eight support staff and £100m in assets under management.
Rice Whatmough Crozier is based in Middleton, Greater Manchester, and was established in 2010 following a management buyout from Deloitte. The group has four senior advisers and seven support staff, and manages £200m of assets.
Between them the two firms service 700 clients.
One Four Nine already has a discretionary fund manager, One Four Nine Portfolio Management, which offers active, passive and sustainable model portfolios to clients.
The firm is run by two former employees of specialist investment manager Ingenious Media which invests in the media sector, including film and TV.
It is headed up by chief executive Matthew Bugden, who spent 18 years at Ingenious, most recently as a director. Managing director Gabrielle Beaumont was a senior investment director at the same firm where she spent nearly 10 years.
The group’s chief investment officer, Dr Bevan Blair, was previously director of strategic asset allocation at Tilney Smith & Williamson.
Bugden said the firm had a number of adviser deals lined up.
He said: “With regulatory and administrative burdens progressively taking up ever greater resources, One Four Nine Group offers quality advisory firms the opportunity to have access to a central investment proposition whether it be a bespoke discretionary solution, model portfolios or tax efficient alternative investments along with extensive support to reduce the administrative and regulatory burden on advisers.
"As 15 per cent of advisers are expecting to sell in the next five years, we have a strong pipeline of exceptional advisory firms across the UK and have built an entrepreneurial business with a dynamic and collegiate culture which will make us the natural partner of choice for quality advisory firms. We are already speaking with other adviser firms and expect to make further acquisitions soon.”
The firm is backed by private equity firm Copper Street Capital.
sally.hickey@ft.com
