Fast-growing wealth manager and Financial Planner Kingswood is to acquire the holding company of asset manager and IFA the IBOSS Group.
Kingswood hailed the deal as a "milestone" acquisition for the firm.
It will pay an initial cash sum of £9.6m, paid on closing with deferred consideration of up to £6.4m, payable over a two year period, and a performance-based earn out linked to three years of EBITDA growth.
Kingswood is acquiring Metnor Holdings, the holding company for IBOSS Asset Management (IBOSS) and Novus Financial Services (Novus). Novus is a regional IFA with clients in the North of England.
IBOSS is a provider of managed portfolio services (MPS) and other investment solutions on an advisory and discretionary basis to financial advisers.
The IBOSS Group brand and expertise with be retained under the existing team. Managing director Chris Metcalf and his investment team will run the investment strategy, implementation and servicing.
The deal boosts Kingswood’s UK assets under management to £3bn, with the aim of doubling this over the next three years. Kingswood has previously shared ambitions to become a top 10 UK investment management firm.
In addition to the other deals announced this month, the acquisition of the IBOSS Group will increase Kingswood’s advisory team to 80 and the number of active clients to over 15,900.
Kingswood has already announced two other acquisitions this month.
The acquisition of Smythe and Walter, a Financial Planning firm based in Faversham, Kent, will see Kingswood buy the firm in a deal worth up to £840,000. The firm manages £40m in assets under management.
The acquisition of Money Matters North East, based in North Yorkshire, will see Kingswood pay total cash of up to £3.4m. The firm manages £115m for 600 Financial Planning clients and employs 13 people including 3 financial advisers.
David Lawrence, UK CEO at Kingswood, said: "In the IBOSS Group, Chris Metcalfe has built a fantastic brand with a superb Investment track record. From our first meeting, we knew that blending the IBOSS Group with Kingswood would create something special in the sector, harnessing the IBOSS Group’s investment record, product range and open market IFA distribution with Kingswood’s existing discretionary investment expertise and rapidly growing Financial Planning businesses."
“Kingswood’s tailored Personal Portfolio Service (PPS) will strongly complement the Portfolio Management Services (PMS) and Managed Portfolio Services (MPS) products provided by IBOSS, with Kingswood also benefiting from IBOSS’ OEIC products, as together we develop a full range of investment solutions for clients.”
The acquisition is Kingswood’s fourth for this year. The firm added that there are currently an additional four deals in the exclusive due diligence stage.
The acquisition drive is likely to continue for Kingswood which said in September that it was planning 12 more acquisitions.
The deals are mainly funded by private equity firm Pollen Street Capital Limited which has partnered with Kingswood. It has so far provided £44.8m in equity to support existing and future acquisitions.
