Broadstone, one of the UK’s largest firms of pension and investment advisers, has been bought by private equity firm Livingbridge for an undisclosed sum.

Private equity investor Livingbridge today completed the acquisition of Broadstone Corporate Benefits and Broadstone Risk & Healthcare from Oakley Capital Private Equity.

Broadstone provides pensions, employee benefits, actuarial and investment services advice to small and medium sized employers, pension scheme trustees and individual pension scheme members. The 131-strong national team is based in offices in London, Sheffield and Falkirk.

Originally created by a tax partner at BDO Stoy Hayward in 1989, Broadstone was acquired by Oakley in 2010. Fenchurch Advisory Partners advised Oakley on the transaction, while Hines Associates Limited advised Livingbridge. Livingbridge says the deal will help Broadstone build a bigger business by helping to fund mergers and acquisitions “and further enable the firm to broaden its offering and capabilities.”

Mark Howlett, chief executive of Broadstone, said: “Our new partnership with Livingbridge signals the start of what I know will be a successful long term relationship and allow Broadstone to continue on its current growth trajectory.

“Our immediate plans are to focus on identifying the most suitable M&A partners to build on this growth, which in turn will help us achieve our future goal of becoming one of the leading employee benefit consultants for the mid-market arena. We look forward to an exciting future with Livingbridge.”

Xavier Woodward of Livingbridge said: ‘We are excited about the opportunity to work with Mark and the rest of Broadstone’s management team in building a leading force in the employee benefits space. We look forward to helping the business achieve organic growth and supporting it in making acquisitions.”

Livingbridge has offices in London, Birmingham and Manchester and has funds under management of £1.5bn as at 30 September 2015.