Kingswood has bought a wealth management business based in the North East, the firm’s second acquisition under its new chief executive.
The consolidator has bought Money Matters (North East) for £3.4m, boosting its team of advisers to 69.
Money Matters is an independent financial adviser firm based in Redcar in North Yorkshire and manages around £115m of assets. It employs 13 people, including three financial advisers.
David Lawrence, Kingswood's chief executive, said the group remained committed to its growth strategy, and had a pipeline of six potential acquisitions under negotiation.
"Since becoming UK chief executive late last year, I have focused on building momentum in the business and expanding our capabilities to integrate and grow. I am thrilled to announce our acquisition of Money Matters and look forward to welcoming Alastair Raine, Chris Woodhams [Money Matters’ company principals] and the whole team to Kingswood.
"Both Chris and Alastair have extensive experience as financial advisers and started MMNE in 2010 with a vision to combine their extensive expertise together to create a client centred business which is a vision that we share at Kingswood.”
Raine and Woodhams said they spoke to many firms with the aim of finding one with a similar culture, and that Kingswood fit perfectly.
"We have been searching for the right business to embrace our culture, philosophy, and principles in continuing to provide the highest quality, client focused financial advice,” they said.
"We feel the prospect of being part of a larger organisation allows us to address the challenges of dealing with increasing regulatory change whilst enhancing the service to existing clients and creating the potential for future growth. These were the key factors in joining the Kingswood Group.”
The acquisition is the second for Kingswood since Lawrence joined in December 2020.
In March he told FTAdviser “finding value for money” with acquisitions is a priority. He added: “We want to be able to achieve a 20 per cent return on investment over the medium term from the investments we make. We can be quite flexible in our buyout models.”
The firm bought North Lincolnshire-based Admiral Wealth Management for close to £4m in June this year.
In July the firm’s chairman, Kenneth “Buzz” West, and chief financial officer, Patrick Goulding, left the company.
sally.hickey@ft.com
