A Newcastle-based Financial Planning firm says it is “absolutely focused” on its buy-out strategy after this morning announcing its revenues increased 29% to £17.4m during 2014.

Fairstone Group, a national firm made up of 230 advisers and 58 staff, acting for over 30,000 clients, reported a 42.5% improvement in underlying EBITDA performance with losses further reduced to £585,000. Officials added that there was a 152% growth in recurring income.
A Fairstone statement read: “The firm’s continued growth was, once again, largely achieved by significant traction in its Downstream Buy Out (DBO) programme, with a series of deals with partner firms completed at various stages within the reported 2014 financial year.”
This strategy has led to the incorporation of 38 firms since 2011.

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Chief Executive Lee Hartley said: “I am delighted to announce that the Fairstone Group continues to make excellent progress against our core strategy and growth plan. We remain absolutely focused on our buy-out strategy and we continue to believe that successful consolidation is driven by dealing with integration ahead of the acquisition.
“We are committed to working with high-quality firms that want to drive their performance upwards over the coming years and, by doing so, realise optimum value for their business. We are already ahead of our forecasts for 2015 and interest in our DBO proposition has never been higher, with a very significant series of deals at various stages of maturity.”
He said: “Our business is well placed to take advantage of the regulatory changes within the markets in which we operate, and this provides an impressive backdrop to our business plan. We sit here with the benefit of a proven business model, financial numbers on an upward trajectory and significant funding at our disposal. All in all, this is a very attractive combination of factors.”
Based in Newcastle upon Tyne with offices in London and Bristol, the group is made up of financial management, private wealth, corporate solutions, mortgage solutions and estate planning channels.
The group had £5 billion of client Funds Under Influence, of which £2.1 billion is classed as Funds Under Management as at the end of September 2015.
Revenues stand at £30m with over 230 financial advisers contracted within Fairstone's regulated businesses. Today there are also over £100m of client funds within its managed portfolio products, which operates under the regulated entity, Fairstone Private Wealth Limited.