Expanding wealth manager and Financial Planner Kingswood has agreed to acquire North Lincolnshire Chartered Financial Planning firm Admiral Wealth Management for a cash consideration of £4m, payable over two years.

The deal brings £100m in assets under advice on behalf of 600 active clients.

The acquisition announcement was made as the firm announced its annual results for the year ending 30 December 2020. Group revenue for the year was £225m, a 153% increase on 2019 reflecting the impact of recent acquisitions.

Operating profit for the year was £0.9m, a 309% increase over 2019 reflecting the contribution of acquisitions, although the firm said this was impacted by the challenging business conditions presented by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Admiral provides independent financial advice to individuals and corporates primarily in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

It has been established for over 30 years and was led by Peter and Carol Waller and Mike Biggin. Mr and Mrs Waller will retire from the business and Mr Biggin will lead the business forward as part of the Kingswood group with the support of senior consultant Adam Harrison.

The Chartered Financial Planning firm currently employs 7 people, including 2 advisers.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

The deal brings Kingswood’s UK funds under advice/management to £3.5bn from around 8,500 active clients.

The firm now has 66 UK client facing advisers.

The firm now has almost £200m in its internal MPS service.

The total Kingswood Group assets under advice now totals over £6.2bn from global retail and institutional clients.

The firm appointed a new UK CEO, former Schroders Personal Wealth head David Lawrence, in December 2020.

Mr Lawrence said that since becoming the new UK CEO, acquisitions is one of the areas he has focused on with “building momentum” expanding the firms “capabilities to integrate and grow.”

He said: “The Kingswood model is designed to provide a centralised, efficient support infrastructure to manage the routine, but time consuming tasks required across compliance, finance, human resources, risk and technology, allowing the Admiral team to deliver a superior level of service to their clients. I am delighted that Mike and Adam have agreed to stay with the business as it enters a new phase as part of the Kingswood Group and I very much look forward to working with them.

The acquisition is expected to be the first of several for the acquisitive firm in 2021.

Mr Lawrence said: “We remain absolutely committed to perpetuating our stated growth strategy within the UK and internationally. Whilst this is our first acquisition of 2021, we have a strong pipeline of high-quality UK opportunities under negotiation, 4 of which are in exclusive due diligence representing pro-forma operating profit in excess of £2.5 million as we continue to grow our financial planning and investment management reach across the UK.”

The firm will finance the acquisition from funds recently received by Kingswood from the issue of new convertible preference shares.

The firm’s expansion drive is supported by £44.8 million growth capital invested by Pollen Street Capital.

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

Kingswood’s international business, under the leadership of Mike Nessim, this week "agreed exclusivity" with a business that on completion will contribute additional annual pro-forma operating profit of USD1.5m.