Chartered Financial Planning-based wealth manager Fairstone is planning to increase its number of acquisitions this year after acquiring or part acquiring 24 firms over the past 12 months.

The North East-based firm says its transaction pipeline for 2024 looks “even stronger” than 2023.

Over the past 12 months Fairstone signed up 16 firms to its progressive acquisition ‘Downstream Buy Out’ model across the UK and Ireland and completed a further 6 full acquisitions.

Fairstone said: “Fairstone’s transaction pipeline looks even stronger in 2024, with a significant number of mature discussions with high quality firms in the UK and Ireland, where the proposition has only recently launched, already well advanced.”

The M&A team is led by chief development officer Steve McNicol and was bolstered in 2023. Leading the deal origination and relationship management are newly-promoted business growth director Gavin Green and senior M&A partner, Mark Donnelly. Both have been with Fairstone since its inception in 2008 and, together with Jack Cronin (M&A partner), are responsible for further accelerating growth through the Downstream Buyout Programme.

There was also further expansion in 2023 of the team of business analysts who are tasked with conducting a research and outreach programme to identify suitable new partner firms.

Lee Hartley, chief executive at Fairstone, said: “Interest in our Downstream Buy Out offering remains strong and our systematic approach to identifying growth-focussed future acquisition opportunities means that we have a much larger target audience than any traditional consolidator. Added to this, 2024 is showing signs of being our busiest and most successful year to date.”

Fairstone has fee income in excess of £135m and operates from over 55 locations with a head office in Sunderland and a City office in London. It has financial management, private wealth, corporate solutions, mortgage solutions and estate planning channels.

The firm employs more than 1,200 operational staff and regulated advisers and oversees £15bn in funds under management for more than 55,000 wealth management clients.