The wave of private equity backed consolidators that swept through the advice market in recent years have had a quiet 18 months or so, as market conditions were upended by interest rates moving sharply higher and equity and bond markets gyrating sharply downwards.
But Gabrielle Beaumont, co-founder and chief executive of One Four Nine Group, is on the front foot, looking to expand her business again after battling the tempestuous market, and says the private equity firm that backed her plan to start One Four Nine Group remains committed to her plan.
While others shy away from the term 'consolidator', Beaumont embraces it, and says the lesson of recent years has been that, when looking at an advice firm to acquire, “it is important not to assume that markets will keep going up and the businesses will grow that way; resilience is very important and quality is very important.
"When we think about quality we think about the length of service of the employees, and the length of time the clients have been with the firms."
Those thoughts are at the forefront of Beaumont’s mind right now as, after a 16-month hiatus, the company, which has £1.6bn of assets under management, ponders making “four or five” advice firm acquisitions this year.
She says: “Over the past 16 months our focus has really been on integrating the businesses we have, rather than buying new businesses. And the timing of that has worked out quite well, not to be buying anything over the past 16 months, when markets were in such flux has helped a lot.
"But now we are ready to look at acquiring firms again. I would say that will be a focus this year; we want to acquire firms with assets of at least £150mn each.
"I am not sure all of the consolidators out there have spent the time we have on integrating the firms we have already bought, and that is something that will help us going forward.”
She says the integration involves: “The immediate moving of the acquired firms to our intelligent office system, and to our compliance department. I have also spent quite a bit of time thinking about the people here. I don’t want the employees who join from the firms we acquire to leave as soon as they can.
"One of the things we have started is an employee benefit trust, which every employee is part of, so every employee benefits from the growth of the company. And with every adviser, we meet them annually to discuss their career progression."
Of the firms so far acquired, many are in Scotland and the north of England, with Beaumont saying those regions “have a lot of talented advisers, and a lot of affluent clients”.
Her desire with the next round of acquisitions is to develop a presence in other regions.
