Wealth manager and Financial Planner Kingswood is to raise a further £20m to fund its acquisition war-chest.

The company is to issue further 20m new convertible preference shares to help fund expansion plans in 2021 and to strengthen its balance sheet.

The issue pushes the total equity issued under subscription to £45m of a long-term £80m convertible preference share programme.

The company says it has a number of acquisition targets under evaluation.

The firm announced recently it had recruited Schroders Personal Wealth’s chief commercial officer David Lawrence to be its new UK chief executive for wealth management and plans to acquire more businesses.

The share issue is being run in conjunction with private equity firm Pollen Street Capital and is the 10th tranche of convertible preference shares to be issued.

Gary Wilder, group CEO at Kingswood, said: "We are thrilled to have Pollen Street's capital support through the convertible preference facility and this new issue further solidifies our balance sheet by an additional £20 million as we accelerate the next stage of our growth journey and puts us in a strong position to deliver our global strategy.

“We are evaluating a number of potential acquisition opportunities with a clear and executable pipeline across the UK, in addition to the growth opportunities available to us in the US largely through active recruitment and organic growth.”

Howard Garland, partner at Pollen Street, said: "We continue to believe the wealth management sector offers compelling opportunities for growth. Kingswood has a clear strategy and we are excited to partner with them to deliver these goals.”

Expanding Kingswood has acquired a number of adviser businesses in the UK and US over the past few years with backing from private equity firm Pollen Street Capital.

Recently it merged its US advisory firms into a new brand, Kingswood US. It also acquired Surrey Chartered Financial Planner firm Regency Investment Services.