Wealth manager and Financial Planner Kingswood has acquired Yorkshire-based Financial Planning firm Money Matters North East (MMNE).

MMNE, based in Redcar, North Yorkshire, manages £115m for 600 Financial Planning clients and employs 13 people including 3 financial advisers.

Kingswood will pay total cash of up to £3.4m, payable over a two year period, following regulatory approval. The first £1.7m will be paid at closing and the balance paid on a deferred basis, some of which is subject to the achievement of pre-agreed performance targets.

Kingswood said in its half year results announcement in September that it was planning a further 12 acquisitions.

The firm made a pre-tax loss of £3.7m in the first half of the year due mainly to the £4.1m cost of acquisitions in the period.

In today’s announcement, Kingswood UK CEO David Lawrence said the firm has 6 acquisitions in exclusive due diligence across the UK Financial Planning and investment management sector.

MMNE advises on all aspects of personal Financial Planning, primarily to clients in the northeast of England, and also advises several small to medium sized businesses.

In the financial year to 31 March, MMNE generated profit before tax of £425,000 and had net assets of £499,000 as at that date.

Alastair Raine and Chris Woodhams, company principals at MMNE, said they were looking to become part of a larger organisation due to increasing regulatory burdens and to boost the firm’s growth.

Mr Raine said: "We spoke to many firms with the primary aim of finding a firm with a very similar culture of placing the clients at the heart of everything we do, whilst focusing on staff welfare and progression. Kingswood fits these criteria 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.

"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.”

Kingswood has a war-chest of around £24.7m for acquisitions, with help from private equity firms Pollen Street Capital and KPI.

The latest acquisition will be fully funded from the issue of new convertible preference shares under its deal with Pollen Street Capital. To date Pollen Street has provided Kingswood with £44.8m.

Other recent acquisitions include Lincolnshire Chartered Financial Planner firm Admiral Wealth Management in August.

In 2020 the firm acquired Sterling Trust, a major regional IFA platform, and Regency Investment Services, an IFA in Greater London.

The latest acquisition boosts its UK client facing advisory team to 69 people and UK funds under advice/management to £4.6bn for around 8,000 active clients.

Kingswood’s group global assets under advice/management total over £6.3bn.